IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

AND 

GOD IN NATURE. 



BY REV. W. C. BLACK, D.D. 

V V 



WITH AN Introduction by 
BISHOP C. B. GALLOWAY. 



Nashville, Tenn. ; Dallas, Tex.: 
Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 
BiGHAM & Smith, Agents. 

IQO?. 



^? CONGRESS I 
[yASHlNQTQirl 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Recdivee' 

SEP 29 1903 

Copyright Entry 
ClASS a. XXc. No 
COPY □. I 



Entered, according to act of Congress, 
in the year 1903, 
By Warren Columbus Black, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, 
Washington, D. C. 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 031457 



Introduction. 



The substance of the following 
pages, in the form of popular lec- 
tures, has been delivered before 
large and delighted audiences. Into 
various parts of the country the 
author has gone in response to 
urgent and repeated invitations, and 
everywdiere commanded a most ap- 
preciative hearing. Though fre- 
quently solicited to publish these 
lectures in a volume and give them 
a wilder circulation, not until now 
has he consented to do so. 

Slightly changed in form, they 
are herein sent forth on a mission 
of mental and spiritual awakening. 
The value of these pages will be 
found in the easy translation of 
profound scientific truth into the 

(3) 



4 Introduction, 

language of the common people. 
Facts of ready discernment are not 
obscured by technical terms. The 
author has not attempted exhaustive 
treatment. His earnest purpose 
has been to provoke thought and 
make attractive further investiga- 
tion. If any reader is thus helped 
to a wider vision and a larger hope, 
the volume will become an evangel. 
Charles B. Galloway. 
Jackson, Miss., April ii, 1903. 



Preface. 

These discourses are an out- 
growth of pastoral life. The as- 
sociations of the pastorate having 
brought the author in contact with 
a good deal of honest sl^epticism, 
these lectures came into existence 
as an antidote thereto. The author 
has never been a professional lec- 
turer. He has given to lecturing 
only such fragments of time as he 
could spare from the labors of the 
pastorate or the tripod. Hundreds 
of invitations to lecture have been 
declined, though their acceptance 
would have been remunerative. 

The first lecture, "Is Man Im- 
mortal?" has been delivered more 
than a hundred and twenty times, 
and in nine different States. It was 

(5) 



6 Preface, 

delivered by special request before 
two different sessions of the Missis- 
sippi Legislature, and also before 
the Mississippi Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1890. It is here present- 
ed in the exact form of its oral de- 
livery, with the exception indicated 
on page ten. 

The other lecture, " God in Na- 
ture," has also had a wide range of 
delivery, though not always in the 
exact form in which it is here pre- 
sented. In oral delivery the part 
relative to " the microcosm " has 
been usually omitted in order to 
bring the lecture within- convention- 
al time limits. W. C. Black. 



PART 1. 

Man Immortal? 

(7) 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

When I die, when my body 
shall have been committed to 
mother earth, will my existence 
then have terminated forever? 
or is death only the gateway to 
a life that is endless? Can any 
question within the whole vast 
range of thought possess a more 
thrilling interest for every one 
who is worthy of the name of 
man than this? This question I 
shall answer in the affirmative, 
and give what I conceive to be 
valid reasons for the faith that is 
in me. 

As a foundation for an argu- 
ment on the subject, I lay down 
three propositions which I hold 

(9) 



lO IS MAN IMMORTAL? 



that every reasonable man must 
accept, whatever may be his 
views concerning various other 
questions that lie within the do- 
main of theology or philosophy. 

My first proposition is this: 
There is a God.* 

My next proposition is this: 
God is infinitely wise. This prop- 
osition is really implied in the 
preceding one. All the argu- 
ments which prove the existence 
of a God prove him to be a being 
of infinite wisdom. Indeed, it 
would be impossible to conceive 
of a greater solecism than is in- 

* In presenting this lecture to an audi- 
ence it has been my custom to introduce 
just here a brief epitome of the argument 
in the second lecture in this book, God 
in Nature." 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? II 

volved in the expression " an un~ 
wise God." The two terms are 
absolutely incompatible. There 
would be as much propriety in 
speaking of a dark light, a true 
falsehood, a virtuous vice, or an 
honest thief as in speaking of an 
unwise God. 

My third proposition is this: 
Man is dual in his nature. I hold 
it to be incontrovertible that with- 
in this physical organism there 
dwells an invisible, intangible, im- 
material something which thinks 
and feels and wills — that some- 
thing which we call the mind, or 
soul. I am not unaware of the 
fact that the blatant materialism 
of the present day seeks to make 
it appear that we have no posi- 
tive proof of the existence of 



12 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

mind as a separate and inde- 
pendent entity. The materialist 
says : " We know that matter ex- 
ists; but we only infer the exist- 
ence of mind." Now, he who 
uses such language is either an 
ignoramus, or else he is trying to 
perpetrate a fraud upon the un- 
wary. We have precisely the 
same kind of proof of the exist- 
ence of mind that we have of the 
existence of matter. How do we 
know that matter exists ? No sci- 
entist will claim that he has ever 
cognized matter as to its essence. 
It is true that latter-day scientists 
talk very learnedly about atoms 
as the basis of the material uni- 
verse ; but no scientist will claim 
that he has ever seen one of these 
atoms. Nay, though he has 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? I3 

sought for them with the aid of 
microscope, crucible, and retort, 
he has never been able to dis- 
cover them. How, then, do we 
know that matter exists? It is 
purely a matter of inference. We 
know that there are certain prop- 
erties, such as extension, shape, 
color, hardness, inertia, etc., and 
we infer that there is some sub- 
stance in which these properties 
inhere. Precisely in the same 
way do we ascertain the exist- 
ence of mind. It is just as cer- 
tain that there are such things as 
thought, memory, consciousness, 
sensibility, and volition as that 
there are such properties as size, 
shape, hardness, etc. Now, just 
as we infer that there must be a 
material substance in which these 



14 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

material properties inhere, just 
so we infer that there must be a 
mental substance in which these 
mental properties inhere. The 
logical process is the same in 
both cases. It is just as certain 
that mind exists as that matter 
exists. Indeed, it is more cer- 
tain; for we can learn of matter 
only through mind. Deny the 
existence of mind, and vou make 
it impossible to prove that matter 
or anything else exists. If I were 
compelled to choose between ma- 
terialism and idealism, I would 
unhesitatingly choose the latter. 
It would be a thousand times ea- 
sier to convince me that neither 
sun, moon, nor stars, nor any 
other material thing exists, than 
to convince me of the falsitv of 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? IS 

the dicta of my consciousness. 
I can listen with some grace to 
him who would rob me of my 
faith in the existence of the ma- 
terial universe; but no sort of 
toleration can I have for him who 
would have me doubt the reality 
of my own mental existence. If 
I know anything at all, I know 
that I live, and that I exercise 
thought, memory, sensibility, and 
volition. 

There lies a man who has just 
met a violent death. His eye is 
as perfect as ever it was, yet 
there is no vision. Why is there 
no vision? On materialistic 
principles, it is impossible to 
tell. Dualism, however, replies : 
''There is no vision for the rea- 
son that the spirit has gone to the 



l6 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

God who gave it." The eye has 
no more power to see than a tel- 
escope. It is merel}^ the instru- 
ment through which the soul 
looks. The ear has no more 
power to hear than a trumpet. It 
is the soul that hears through the 
ear. The body is not the man; 
it is only the box of tools he 
works with. Man has a body. 
Man is soul. This is the bed 
rock of human ontology. 

Bear in mind, then, these three 
propositions: (i) There is a 
God. (2) God is infinitely wise. 
( 3 ) Man is dual in his nature ; in 
other words, the human soul is 
a real entity, an immaterial sub- 
stance. These propositions I 
hold that every reasonable man 
must accept, whatever may be his 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 1/ 

views concerning various other 
questions, scientific, metaphys- 
ical, or theological. These prop- 
ositions constitute the foundation 
on which I shall build. They are 
implied in all I shall say. 

In the next place, I announce 
this as a proposition which can- 
not be controverted: There is no 
such thing as annihilation in the 
material universe . To illustrate : 
We lay a stick of wood upon the 
fire. In a little while it is con- 
sumed, and we say in common 
parlance that it is destroyed; but 
no one supposes that it is destroyed 
in the sense of being annihilated. 
Every schoolboy at the present 
day knows that it is not destroyed 
in this sense. Gather together 
the ashes, the soot, the smoke, 



l8 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

the carbonic dioxide, and all the 
other gases generated in the proc • 
ess of combustion, and weigh 
them all, and they will weigh pre- 
cisely the same as did the orig- 
inal stick of timber. This has 
been demonstrated in the labora- 
tory of the chemist ten thousand 
times. Every particle of the mat- 
ter that composed the stick of 
timber is still in existence some- 
where, in some form. Combus- 
tion does not produce annihila- 
tion. The same is true of that 
slower process of combustion or- 
dinarily called decay. There 
stands the lordly oak, towering 
above the neighboring trees like 
a Saul above his brethren. Sud- 
denly it yields to the fury of the 
storm king and falls to the 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 1 9 

ground. When a few years have 
passed away, it is gone, it no 
longer exists as a tree or a log; 
and we speak of it as being de- 
stroyed. But no one supposes 
that it has been annihilated. 
Every particle of matter that 
composed that tree when it stood 
in all its pride as the monarch of 
the forest is still in existence 
somewhere, in some form. Un- 
der the influence of well-known 
natural laws, the tree has been de- 
composed, resolved into its orig- 
inal elements. These elements 
have entered into various new 
combinations. Some of them 
have mingled with the soil, giv- 
ing it increased fertility, and have 
been taken up by trees, grasses, 
and other plants through their 



20 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

roots. Others have floated out 
into the atmosphere in the shape 
of gases of various kinds, and 
have thus been inhaled by men 
and animals through their lungs, 
or by plants through their leaves. 
Thus the atoms which once com- 
posed the stately oak may now 
form a part of the bodies of men 
or animals. They may have en- 
tered into ten thousand new com- 
binations, but amid all these mul- 
titudinous mutations and trans- 
formations there is no annihila- 
tion. Not one atom of matter 
has been destroyed. And this is 
true not only in combustion and 
decay, but in all the countless 
myriads of mutations and trans- 
formations that are incessantly 
being wrought out before our 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 21 

eyes in the great laboratory of 
nature. Amid all the countless, 
inconceivable millions of changes 
in the forms of matter, there has 
never been from the creation till 
now one single instance of anni- 
hilation. Every particle of mat- 
ter that sprang into being when 
the fiat of creation went forth 
from the lips of Omnipotence is 
still in existence somewhere, in 
some form. This is a scientific 
truth now universally admitted. 
Well, if there has been no anni- 
hilation in the past, who has the 
right to assert that such a phe- 
nomenon will ever occur in the 
future ? Nature's laws are as un- 
changing as the divine existence. 
Hence, since these laws have nev- 
er produced a single instance of 



22 IS MAN IMINIORTAL? 



annihilation in the past, we have 
no right, from a scientific stand- 
point, to suppose that they will 
ever do so in the future. 

Just here some one may raise 
the inquiry, " Does not the Bible 
teach that there is a time coming 
when the world will be burned 
up?" In the first place, I doubt 
whether the Bible teaches this. 
Certainly such phraseology can 
be found in Scripture; but I in- 
cline to the opinion that it is de- 
scriptive of moral and spiritual, 
not physical, changes. Suppose, 
however, we admit, for the sake 
of argument, that such language 
is descriptive of physical changes. 
Suppose that after a time the 
Creator, by touching some se- 
cret spring of nature's forces, 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 23 

should extract the nitrogen from 
the air, thus leaving the undi- 
luted oxygen to set the world on 
fire; or suppose that the terrific 
fires that rage beneath every 
square foot of the earth's surface 
should burst forth in ten thou- 
sand volcanic eruptions; sup- 
pose that in either of these ways, 
or in some other way, a mighty 
conflagration should sweep over 
the entire earth, consuming ev- 
erything on its surface, and even 
fusing the great globe itself: 
what of it? Have I not shown 
that combustion does not mean 
annihilation ? If the world should 
be burned up, it would no more 
be destroyed than a lump of coal 
is destroyed when it is consumed 
in the grate. Every particle of 



24 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

matter that composed the earth 
in its pristine beauty would still 
exist in some form; and all we 
know of the plans and purposes 
of Deity points to the conclusion 
that the earth would come forth 
from this mighty conflagration as 
much more beautiful than it now 
is as the full-blown rose is more 
beautiful than its parent germ, or 
the butterfly than the chrysalis 
from which it sprang. 

So, then, no man has a right 
to assert that a single atom of 
matter will ever be blotted out of 
existence. Neither science nor 
revelation knows anything of an- 
nihilation, either as a past ex- 
perience or a future possibility. 
When the fiat of creation went 
forth from the lips of Omnipo- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 2$ 

tence, it went forth for eternity. 
Not one atom of matter was 
brought into existence only to be 
blotted out again. 

My next proposition is this: 
Mind is infinitely superior to mat- 
ter. This proposition needs no 
argument to support it. You can 
scarcely offer a man a greater in- 
dignity than to ask him which he 
considers of greater value, his 
mind, or a stone, or clod, or even 
a planet. Every man feels in- 
stinctively that that mind within 
him which thinks and feels and 
wills is worth more than ten thou- 
sand worlds of dead, inert mat- 
ter. Matter which can only act 
as it is acted upon by some ex- 
traneous force is utterly unwor- 
thy to be compared with mind, 



26 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 



which is self-active, which can 
originate thought and exercise 
sensibility and volition. Now, put 
these two propositions together 
— that there is no such thing 
as annihilation in the material 
universe, and that mind is in- 
finitely superior to matter — and 
what follows ? If an all-wise God 
reigns supreme over the universe, 
does it not necessarily follow that 
man must live beyond the grave? 
Who can believe that under the 
administration of an all-wise God 
matter is perpetuated forever; 
while mind, which is infinitely 
superior to matter, has but a mo- 
mentary existence ? Look at the 
position of the skeptic, will you? 
He believes that God watches 
over matter with unceasing care, 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 27 

SO that not one atom of matter has 
ever been destroyed during all the 
countless cycles that have inter- 
vened since creation's morn ; and 
yet he believes that God brings 
mind into existence only to blot 
it out after a brief period of three- 
score years and ten or less. The 
bodies of all the sages of antiqui- 
ty have been preserved, w^hile 
their souls have perished. The 
particles of carbon, hydrogen, ni- 
trogen, iron, sulphur, etc., that 
once composed the bodies of 
Adam, Moses, David, Isaiah^ 
Paul, Plato, Socrates, Zoroaster, 
etc. — all these particles of inert 
matter have been preserved; but 
the glorious minds that once ten- 
anted those bodies were long 
since annihilated . And this proc- 



28 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

ess is still going on. The great 
Author of nature is still blotting 
out human souls at the rate of 
more than fifty a minute, while 
at the same time he preserves 
every atom of matter throughout 
eternity. Can you believe this ? 
Suppose a human being were 
thus to act. Suppose a man were 
to come into possession of a thou- 
sand diamonds, each one of as 
great value as that costliest jewel 
that bedecks the brow of En- 
gland's great king, a jewel said to 
be worth several millions of dol- 
lars; suppose each of these jew- 
els is contained in a little earthen 
casket worth about as much as an 
ordinary clay pipe; suppose he 
takes these jewelsto the seashore, 
and from some beetling cliff hurls 



IS MAN IMMORTAL 29 

them one by one into the pro- 
foundest depths of the ocean^ 
where they are forever annihi- 
lated, so far as any use he can 
make of them is concerned; and 
yet suppose he takes these little 
earthen caskets, whose only val- 
ue is that they are fitted to contain 
the gems, carries them home, pre- 
serves them with the greatest care 
while he lives, and leaves them as 
an inalienable inheritance in his 
family when he is dead. What 
would be thought of such a man? 
Would he not be universally re- 
garded as a lunatic? And yet 
such a man would be vastly wiser 
than the God of the universe is, 
if it be true that the soul ceases 
to exist at death. If skepticism 
be true, then the God of the uni- 



30 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

verse blots out of existence that 
priceless jewel, the human soul, 
while at the same time he pre- 
serves through endless ages the 
poor, worthless earthen casket, 
w^hose only value is that it is fitted 
to be the temporary receptacle 
of the soul. Carbon, hydrogen, 
iron, sulphur, and other forms of 
matter are preserved forever; 
while thought, affection, and holy 
aspiration perish after a period 
whose brevity is aptly symbolized 
by the ephemeral glare of the 
meteor or the short-lived exist- 
ence of the bubble which bursts 
in mid-air ere you have time to 
admire its gorgeous tints. Is this 
the God you worship, O skeptic ? 
If so, then worship him to your 
heart's content; but as for me, I 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 3 1 

-would rather bow the knee to 
Baal, or worship Juggernaut or 
Aaron's golden calf, than such a 
God. The God I worship is a 
being of infinite wisdom ; and the 
fact that he does preserve matter 
through endless ages is, to me, 
an all-sufficient proof that he will 
also preserve mind, which is in- 
finitely superior to matter. 

Another argument I wish to 
present. This argument I can 
perhaps best introduce by the aid 
of an illustration. We see a fish. 
We notice that it has no wings 
and no feet, but that it has fins. 
We therefore infer that it is not 
the intent of nature that the fish 
shall walk on terra jirma or fly 
through the air, but that it shall 
find a home in the rolling deep. 



32 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

This is reasoning which would be 
agreed to by all men, the un- 
learned as well as the learned, 
the savage as well as the civilized 
man. Now, what is the abstract 
principle here involved? Why, 
this : that capability indicates des- 
tiny. The fish has fins — that is, 
capability of swimming; we 
therefore infer that it is the in- 
tent of nature that it shall swim. 
In other words, we believe that 
every power is intended not to 
lie dormant but to be exercised. 
Of course this principle applies 
to man no less than to fish, bird, 
or quadruped. 

Let us, then, apply this prin- 
ciple to man. Let us see what 
man's capabilities are, and thus 
ascertain what his destiny must 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 33 

be. But, as it will be impossi-^ 
ble, within the limits which the 
proprieties of the occasion allow, 
to consider all the capabilities of 
the human race, we shall confine 
our attention to one single capa- 
bility — viz., that of acquiring 
knowledge. Any one of several 
others would serve our purpose 
as well; but, as we must make a 
selection, we choose this one. 
The capacity of the human mind 
for the acquisition of knowledge 
is one of the greatest wonders of 
the world. Think what man's 
achievements have been in this 
direction. When man became 
a denizen of this planet, he 
had very little knowledge. He 
knew almost nothing concerning 
the nature or properties of evea 
3 



34 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

the most common objects, and 
hence was unable to utilize them 
for his comfort and convenience. 
He had not a chair upon which 
to sit, a knife with which to cut 
his food, a bed upon which to re- 
cline his weary limbs, or even a 
roof to shelter him from the 
storms. In short, he was igno- 
rant of all the arts and destitute of 
all the implements of civilized 
life. Contrast that condition with 
his present state. How vast the 
change! How wonderful have 
been his acquisitions of knowl- 
edge, and how marvelously have 
these been made to contribute to 
his happiness ! Almost every ad- 
dition to his stock of knowledge 
has been made the means of ele- 
vating himself to a higher plane 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 35 

of civilization. Think of his do- 
minion over the three great king- 
doms of nature — the animal, vege- 
table, and mineral kingdoms — 
and of the ten thousand ways in 
which these are made tributary 
to his happiness. How many an- 
imals are his servants, and in how 
many ways do they minister to 
him? Deprived of all animal 
products, of all uses of the ani- 
mal kingdom, how far would man 
be to-day above a state of savage- 
ry ? And who can enumerate the 
myriad utilities of the vegetable 
kingdom ? In architecture, in the 
manufacture of clothing, in the 
practice of the healing art, in the 
construction of the various imple- 
ments he uses, and in a thousand 
other ways the vegetable kingdom 



36 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

contributes immeasurably to hu- 
man advancement. Think also of 
the mineral kingdom; consider 
the various metal and mineral sub- 
stances, and their compounds and 
combinations. Who can measure 
their utilities ? Gold, silver, iron, 
copper, lead, tin, coal, glass, pe- 
troleum — I hazard nothing in 
saying that without these civiliza- 
tion as it now exists would be an 
impossibility. Now, all the mul- 
tifarious objects that compose 
the three great kingdoms of na- 
ture are of use to man only as he 
makes them so, only because he 
has a mind that is capable of 
studying the nature and proper- 
ties of each particular substance, 
and thus ascertaining how it can 
be made subservient to his inter- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 37 

ests. To convert the rough, 
hairy skin of an animal into the 
soft, beautiful leather that covers 
hands, feet, or books; to trans- 
form the tangled fiber of the cot- 
ton plant into the thousand beau- 
tiful clothing fabrics of the pres- 
ent day ; to construct all the va- 
rious implements known to civ- 
ilization, from the brass pin and 
the horn button to the improved 
reaper and the sewing machine; 
to gather trees from the forest, 
iron from the mine, stones from 
the mountain, and to fashion these 
into such an assemblage of splen- 
did edifices as can be seen in any 
of our great metropolitan cities — 
these and all such achievements 
evince a power of mental acqui- 
sition that is absolutely marvel- 



38 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

ous. Walk through earth's dwell- 
ings, earth's factories, earth's 
warehouses, earth's commercial 
marts, take a minute survey of 
all you see, and then tell me how 
many of these things were known 
to primeval man. The answer 
is: Not one. They are all the 
result of knowledge acquired by 
laborious experiment and patient 
research continued from age to 
age. 

Now, this power to extort from 
nature her secrets and utilize 
them for self-exaltation is one of 
the chief characteristics that dif- 
ferentiate the human from the 
brute creation. When the brute 
mind utilizes nature, it does so 
mstinctively , blindly, and it makes 
no progress in this direction. 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 39 

The bee constructs the cell of her 
honeycomb now precisely as she 
did three thousand years ago 
when she hid her stores of sweet- 
ness in the carcass of Samson's 
lion. The spider spins her web 
now precisely as she did five 
thousand years ago when she 
found a temporary dwelling place 
in the corners of Noah's ark. 
And as with spider and bee, so 
with all other forms of brute life. 
Except within certain narrow and 
well-defined limits, the brute 
mind is absolutely nonprogress- 
ive. Man, however, is constant- 
ly advancing in knowledge, con- 
stantly ascertaining new facts 
concerning the multitudinous ob- 
jects that environ him and using 
these facts as a leverage to ele- 



40 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

vate himself to a higher plane of 
civilization. To the brute mind 
oceans of oil, mountains of iron, 
and vast caverns filled w^ith gems 
and gold are of no more value 
than the roughest pebbles under- 
neath their feet. They are of 
value to man only because he has 
a mind that is capable of study- 
ing the nature and the properties 
of all the multitudinous objects 
that environ him, and thus ascer- 
taining how they may be made 
tributary to his happiness. All 
the implements know^n to civ- 
ilization, and all the marvelous 
results achieved through their in- 
strumentality, are only so many 
evidences of the marvelous ca- 
pacities of the human mind for 
the acquisition of knowledge. 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 4 1 

And not only does man thus 
utilize nature in her grosser 
forms; he also lays his hand 
Tipon her secret forces, and makes 
them do his bidding. With rea- 
son's eye he beholds steam, the 
vapor of water, invisible though 
it is to his natural organs of 
vision, as it rises from earth and 
plumes its wings for a lofty aerial 
flight, lays his hand upon it, im- 
prisons it in an iron dungeon, 
and compels it, an unwilling, 
struggling captive, to put forth 
efforts and achieve results, in 
comparison with which the most 
colossal productions of human 
handicraft dwindle into absolute 
insignificance. Yes, the twen- 
tieth century man evokes from 

the old oaken bucket that hangs 



42 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

in the well" a spirit whose daily 
doings far eclipse the most mar- 
velous performances of even the 
gods of the olden time. He 
catches the sunbeam as it rushes 
by with lightninglike velocity, 
and compels it to photograph his 
image upon glass, or metal, or 
paper, and thus give immortality 
to his features. He takes a sooty 
lump of coal from the grate, trans- 
forms it into a substance as light 
and as invisible as air, and makes 
that gaseous substance answer as 
a substitute for sunshine. He 
constructs an instrument, the tel- 
ephone, by means of which he is 
able to carry on an oral conver- 
sation with a person hundreds of 
miles away. He constructs an- 
other instrument, the phono- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 43 

graph, by means of which he 
garners up his vocal utterances 
and transmits them to unborn 
generations, so that a thousand 
years after his funeral anthem 
shall have been sung his pos- 
terity may reproduce not only 
his words, but the very intona- 
tions of his voice. He catches 
the lightning as it plays upon 
the bosom of the storm cloud, 
brings it down to earth, arrays 
it in the livery of servitude, and 
sends it almost with the velocit}' 
of thought across continents and 
oceans, so that we here in the 
heart of this new world may know 
what transpired only a few mo- 
ments since in the palace of the 
Czar of all the Russias or in 
the streets of the ancient and far- 



44 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

famed city on the banks of the 
Tiber. 

And not only does he thus 
subjugate nature in her subtler 
forms, and compel her to minis- 
ter to his happiness ; he also pos- 
sesses the higher power of read- 
ing the thoughts and compre- 
hending the plans of the Creator, 
as they are embodied in the great 
world of nature. All the multi- 
tudinous objects that compose 
the fauna and the flora of the 
^arth have been examined with 
minute care and classified accord- 
ing to structural and functional 
peculiarities; and thus the entire 
animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
in all their vast variety and won- 
derful extent, lie mapped out be- 
iore man's mental vision exactly 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 45 

as they existed in the mind of the 
Creator long ages before the 
foundations of the earth were 
laid. His conquests within the 
domain of the chemical science 
have been equally wonderful. 
All the multitudinous objects that 
make up the great world of na- 
ture around us have been cate- 
chised with the aid of micro- 
scope, crucible, and retort and 
forced to reveal their chemical 
composition and the entire story 
of their birth. The food we eat, 
the water we drink, the air we 
breathe, the clothes we wear, the 
bones and muscles of our bodies, 
the rocks and soil that compose 
the crust of the globe ; in short, 
all things, animate and inani- 
mate, on the face of the earth. 



46 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

have been analyzed, and the won- 
derful fact has been revealed 
that all these are composed of a 
very few elementary substances. 
There are only about seventy el- 
ements in all, and of these less 
than half a score make up the 
great bulk of all we see. And 
not only the elements themselves, 
but also the proportions in which 
they unite and the laws that reg- 
ulate their multifarious combi- 
nations, have been discovered. 
Thus man has comprehended 
the plan on which the whole fab- 
ric of nature, organic and inor- 
ganic, has been erected. 

And not only does he thus 
read the thoughts and compre- 
hend the plans of the Creator as 
they are displayed in the visible 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 47 

world around us, but with sub- 
lime audacity he also resolves to 
■explore worlds that God has hid- 
den from him. He says to him- 
self: I believe that God has 
hidden a great, beautiful, inter- 
esting world from me by giving 
me eyes that are imperfect;" 
and so he resolves to improve his 
eyesight. He constructs a micro- 
scope, and, sure enough, there 
isahidden universe — great, beau- 
tiful, glorious to behold. The 
revelations of the microscope are 
w^onderful. One single drop of 
water from a stagnant pool con- 
tains, not thousands only, but 
millions of living creatures, each 
endowed with organs of diges- 
tion, organs of respiration, or- 
gans of locomotion, and all the 



48 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

Other organs necessary to life and 
happiness. All the visible ani- 
mals that live on land and in the 
sea are utterly insignificant in. 
number when compared with the 
denizens of the microscopic 
world . The microscopic animal- 
cule that inhabit a single cubic 
mile of water taken from some 
parts of the ocean far exceed ia 
number the entire visible popu- 
lation of the earth, both brute 
and human. 

And not only has he discov- 
ered this hidden world; he has 
also explored it. He has exam- 
ined with minute care its various 
forms of life as to anatomical 
structure and functional pecul- 
iarities, and thus classified them 
exactly as they are classified in 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 49 

the mind of the Creator him- 
self. 

Again, he turns his eye upward, 
and says: ''I believe there is 
another great universe up there 
that God has hidden from me by 
putting a veil over my eyes, and 
I intend to rend that veil asun- 
der." So he gathers a small 
quantity of sand from the beach, 
mingles with it an alkali of 
some sort, and applies to the mix- 
ture the heat of a furnace; and 
there comes out glass clear as 
crystal. He breaks the glass 
into fragments, and shapes these 
fragments into a telescope. He 
points the telescope to the sky, 
and instantly in the joy of his 
heart he cries out: Eureka, 
eureka ! I have found it. I have 
4 



50 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

found the great universe which 
God had hidden from me." 
Those who have never employed 
telescopic aid in contemplating 
the diamond-studded dome above 
can have no conception of the 
enrapturing splendors that burst 
upon the vision as the fire-clad 
hosts by millions go trooping 
across the sky. In a little patch 
of sky where with the naked eye 
only a very few stars can be seen, 
bring the telescope to your aid, 
and multiplied thousands of blaz- 
ing worlds of light are brought 
into view. The number of stars 
brought to light by the powerful 
telescopes of the present day is 
so great that an exact enumera- 
tion of them is impossible. Noth- 
ing more than an approximate 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 5 1 

estimate has ever been attempt- 
ed. 

But he is not yet content. He 
resolves that he w^ill not only dis- 
cover this hidden universe, but 
that he w^ill also explore it. So 
on reason's wing he soars aloft, 
visits these far-off w^orlds, and 
weighs and measures them. How 
wonderful ! It used to be thought 
a marvelous exploit for even a 
God to ''weigh the hills in a 
scale and the mountains in a bal- 
ance." The twentieth century 
man esteems it a very trivial task 
to weigh great worlds a thou- 
sand times larger than the globe 
upon which we dwell. He also 
measures their distances from 
the earth and from each oth- 
er, and ascertains the laws that 



52 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

govern them in their everlasting 
flight. 

And not even yet does he pause 
in his wonderful search into the 
arcana of nature. Not content 
with, having discovered and ex- 
plored and weighed and measured 
millions of great worlds that God 
has hidden from him , with sublime 
audacity he resolves that he will 
analyze these distant worlds, that 
he will ascertain the stuff they 
are made of. So he constructs 
the spectroscope, and with its aid 
the marvelous task is accom- 
plished. Isn't it amazing that a 
poor worm of the dust, groveling 
on the surface of this insignifi- 
cant little planet, should know 
with absolute certainty that iron, 
sodium, and other mundane ele- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 53 

ments exist in the sun and in 
those distant stars which the tel- 
escope brings to view? 

Nor does he stop with even this 
subHme achievement. Not satis- 
fied with having annihilated space 
and explored and analyzed myr- 
iads of hidden worlds, he also re- 
solves that time shall no longer 
be a barrier in the way of his ac- 
quisition of knowledge. In other 
words, he resolves that he will 
unlock the vast treasure-house of 
the past and bring forth its pro- 
foundest mysteries. So, gather- 
ing together the widely scattered 
leaves of nature's great volume 
of stone, he scrutinizes the 
strange hieroglyphic characters 
therein inscribed, deciphers 
them, and thus reads the history 



54 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

of our earth for millions of ages 
before man himself was created. 

How wonderful the mind that 
can thus gather wisdom from such 
vast regions of space and such 
an incomprehensible sweep of 
time ! Think of all these achieve- 
ments of w^hich I have spoken 
(and remember that, so far from 
having exhausted the subject, I 
have only glanced at it here and 
there); I say, think of all these 
achievements, compare man as 
we now find him with man as he 
comes before us on the first page 
of authentic history, and then tell 
me, Do you know of anything 
more wonderful than the capaci- 
ty of the human mind for the ac- 
quisition of knowledge? 

And we must remember that 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 55 

man's capacities in this direction 
are not by any means measured 
by his past achievements. Sci- 
ence is yet in its infancy. We 
have yet hardly mastered the al- 
phabet of the great book of na- 
ture. Those who live upon the 
earth a thousand years from now 
will look upon us very much as 
we look upon the antediluvians ; 
they will regard us as at least 
semibarbarians. 

Moreover, it must be remem- 
bered that all the acquisitions of 
which I have spoken were made 
under conditions which wonder- 
fully circumscribe the powers of 
the mind. Man in this world 
finds certain limitations placed 
upon his powers, which need to 
be removed in thought in order 



56 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

to estimate his capacities. Let 
us consider these Umitations for 
a moment. In the first place, 
about one-third of a man's Hfe — 
about eight hours out of every 
twenty-four — must be spent in 
slumber to restore tired nature's 
energies. Then, under ordina- 
ry circumstances, another third 
must be given to some kind of 
toil, either mental or manual, to 
maintain a mere physical exist- 
ence. Thus two-thirds of his life 
are consumed, and usually only 
a small part of the remaining 
third can be given to the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge. A thousand 
circumstances necessitate the oc- 
cupation of the mind with other 
matters, leaving only a very 
small fraction of his life that 



IS MAN IMMORTAL.^ 57 

can be devoted to the acquisition 
of knowledge. Add to this the 
limitations imposed by death. 
Just as a man is beginning to 
learn the alphabet of the great 
book of science, death claims 
him for its prey. When his suc- 
cessor comes upon the stage, he 
must begin the acquisition of 
knowledge, not where his pred- 
ecessor left off, but where he 
began; and thus a very large 
part of every man's life is neces- 
sarily spent in simply going over 
again the ground trod by his 
predecessors, so that only a very 
small fragment of any man's life 
can be spent in extending the 
boundaries of knowledge. 

Now, suppose all these limita- 
tions were removed ; suppose it 



58 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

were not necessary to sleep, not 
necessary to toil, so that the 
whole of life, and not a mere 
fragment of it, could be devoted 
to the acquisition of knowledge ; 
suppose, furthermore, that it 
were not necessar}- to die; sup- 
pose that the first man and all his 
posterity could have lived on un- 
til now, devoting not a mere frag- 
ment but the whole of their time 
to the study of nature — how vast- 
ly greater would man's knowl- 
edge have been than it now is ! 
In that case, human civilization 
would have been as much higher 
than it now^ is as our civilization 
is higher than that of the most 
barbarous tribes that swarm in 
the heart of the Dark Continent. 
But there is still another limita- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 59 

tion that needs to be considered — 
namely, the limitation placed 
upon man's powers by the attrac- 
tion of gravitation. Man in this 
life finds himself chained down 
to earth. Now, suppose all these 
limitations were removed, this 
necessity to sleep, this necessity 
to toil, this necessity to die; and 
suppose, also, that gravitation's 
cord were cut in twain, so that 
man could rise upon the pinions 
of an angel, and soar through 
space with the velocity of the 
lightning's flash, and continue 
his flight through myriads of ages 
— who, in that case, could set lim 
its to his knowledge? Remem- 
ber that this earth, great as it ap- 
pears to us poor, puny mortals, 
is but one of a vast number of 



6o IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

worlds. The sun is more than a 
milHon times as large as the 
earth. Every star that gleams 
upon us from the nocturnal sky 
is either a world like our own, or 
else a sun, the center of a vast 
system of worlds, which are them- 
selves invisible on account of 
their distance from us. The dis- 
tance of the sun from the earth 
is so great that a railroad train 
traveling at the rate of five hun- 
dred miles a day could not reach 
it in less than five hundred years. 
The planet Neptune is thirty 
times farther still, so that it would 
take thirty times five hundred 
years, or fifteen thousand years, 
for our railroad train to traverse 
this distance. Neptune is the 
outermost planet belonging to 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 6l 



our solar system. Around the 
solar system in every direction 
lies a vast tract of empty space, 
no less than twenty trillions of 
miles in extent. Do you wish 
to know how long it would take 
for our railway train to cross this 
empty space and reach the near- 
est of the fixed stars? Well, the 
nearest fixed star is two hundred 
and twenty-six thousand times 
farther from us than the sun is . It 
would therefore take two hundred 
and twenty-six thousand times 
five hundred years — i. one 
hundred and thirteen millions of 
years — to accomplish that jour- 
ney. This is a period about 
twenty thousand times as long as 
that which has intervened since 
man was created. Perhaps it 



62 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

will give a still more impressive 
idea of these distances to consider 
the time it takes for light to trav- 
erse them. The velocity of light 
is amazing. The distance from 
the earth to the sun, which a rail- 
road train could not traverse in 
less than five hundred years, light 
traverses in less than eight min- 
utes. Light travels so rapidly 
that it can flash from the north 
pole to the south pole and back 
again no less than fifteen times 
w^hile your watch ticks once. Yet 
the nearest fixed star is so far 
away that its light, traveling with 
this amazing velocity, cannot 
reach the earth in less than three 
and a fourth years. Other stars 
are many times farther still. 
And we have hitherto been 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 63 

considering only the nearest stars, 
those that appear to our natural 
organs of vision every cloudless 
night. These, however, are ut- 
terly insignificant in number 
when compared with those which 
the telescope brings to view. 
T^Tow some of these telescopic 
stars are so remote that their 
light reaches us only after a jour- 
ney of thirty millions of years. 
Thirty millions of years, travel- 
ing all the while with a velocity 
about thirty million times as great 
as that of the railway train ! 
What an idea does this give us 
of the vastness of space and of 
the grandeur of the empire over 
which Jehovah reigns supreme ! 

But we have not yet reached a 
estopping place. The first tele- 



64 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

scopes that were constructed 
were of small magnifying power, 
and hence brought to light only 
a few w^orlds. Soon afterwards 
instruments of greater power 
w^ere constructed, and these vast- 
ly increased the number of visi- 
ble worlds. Since then improve- 
ment after improvement has been 
made in the telescope, and every 
successive augmentation of op- 
tical power has evoked from the 
viewless depths of space count- 
less millions of flaming worlds 
unseen before. This being the 
case, astronomers believe that, 
if it were possible to construct a 
telescope having a magnifying 
power ten thousand times greater 
than that of any now in exist- 
ence, the number of visible 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 65 

worlds would be proportionately 
increased. What is a drop of 
water in comparison with the 
ocean, or a grain of sand in com- 
parison with the earth? Yet ten 
thousand times smaller, perhaps, 
is that part of the universe that 
lies within the range of telescopic 
vision when compared with that 
part which lies in those far-off 
depths of space which no tele- 
scope has ever penetrated. Im- 
agine yourself instantaneously 
transported by some mysterious 
power to a point far beyond the 
remotest star revealed by the 
most powerful telescope. Pause, 
and ask yourself: ''What lies 
before me?" The answer is: 
''Space." Rise upon the pin- 
ions of an angel and travel with 
5 



66 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

the velocity of the lightning's 
flash, and continue your flight 
for more millions of ages than 
there are drops of water in the 
ocean; what lies before you? 
Space. Increase your speed a 
thousandfold, and go on and on 
and on for more millions of ages 
than there are atoms of matter 
in the whole visible universe; 
have you yet reached the bound- 
aries of space ? Why, you are no 
nearer than when you began 
your flight. Space is infinite. 
It is "a circle whose center is 
everywhere, and whose circum- 
ference is nowhere." So, then, 
there is room in space for more 
millions of worlds than our arith- 
metic can compute, or our finite 
imagination can conceive of. 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 67 

And since every successive in- 
crease of telescopic power has 
revealed worlds unseen before, 
it is only reasonable to suppose 
that still greater telescopic power 
would bring into view multiplied 
millions more. Increase your 
speed ten thousand fold (remem- 
ber that you are already traveling 
with a velocity a thousand times 
greater than that of the light- 
ning's flash), and go on and on 
and on for more millions of ages 
than there are atoms of matter in 
the whole telescopic universe ; 
would you be — I will not say be- 
yond the boundaries of space, for, 
of course, you would not — but 
would you be beyond the bound- 
aries of the material universe? 
Who will venture the rash as- 



68 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

sertion? Doubtless you would 
still find yourself surrounded by 
countless millions of flaming 
worlds, stretching away in every 
direction beyond the reach of 
telescopic vision. 

And each of these countless 
w^orlds doubtless affords as strik- 
ing displays of the power and 
wdsdom and goodness of God as 
does our own. The question is 
sometimes asked: Are other 
worlds than our own inhabited? 
In reply, I ask: Why were these 
worlds created which lie beyond 
our vision? Were they created 
simply to give light to our earth ? 
One single one of them placed at 
a proper distance would give 
more light than the whole of 
them hid away in those far-off 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 69 

depths of space. More than nine 
hundred and ninety-nine thou- 
sandths of the stars have never 
been seen from earth except by 
a handful of astronomers, with 
their sky - piercing telescopes. 
Were these created solely to give 
light to the earth ? Suppose some 
man should gravely propose to 
light the streets of the city of 
San Francisco by building a 
huge fire upon the top of one of 
the peaks of the Alps? Would 
he not be regarded as a lunatic? 
How much wiser is the God of 
the universe, if he created the 
heavenly bodies simply to light 
up our terrestrial dwelling place? 
If wisdom is an attribute of De- 
ity, then these telescopic stars 
were created for some other pur- 



70 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

pose. What is that purpose? 
Did the Creator bring them into 
existence simply that he might 
amuse himself by watching their 
motions as a boy amuses himself 
with a top, kite, balloon, soap 
bubble, or skyrocket? Such a 
conception is beneath contempt. 
Why, then, were they created? 
I answer: All the analogies of 
nature, all the teachings of 
Scripture, all we know of the 
divine character and the prin- 
ciples of the divine government 
point to the conclusion that mat- 
ter exists for the sake of mind, 
that worlds were as certainly 
created to be inhabited as acorns 
were intended to produce oaks. 
Of course there are worlds that 
are not now inhabited, and will 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 7 1 

not be for ages to come, just as 
the earth was tenantless during 
untold ages of its earlier exist- 
ence; but, like the earth, they 
are passing through a process of 
development which shall ulti- 
mately fit them to be the abodes 
of sentient life. There is, then, 
doubtless, as much to be learned 
in many other worlds as in our 
own. 

Moreover, let us remember 
that when we study nature we 
are studying the handiwork of 
God, and that this is well-pleas- 
ing in his sight. Every object 
in nature, great and small, ex- 
isted as a thought in the mind of 
Deity ages before it became an 
actuality in the universe. Each 
one of the ten thousand times 



72 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

ten thousand flowers that bloom 
in earth's gardens and beautify 
earth's landscapes, and throw 
out their sweet, refreshing aroma 
upon the wings of the morning 
— each flower, I say, is but a 
thought of God, embalmed in 
matter, painted with the pencil 
of omnipotence and perfumed 
with the fragrance of heaven. 
Every stone and pebble and 
mineralogical specimen is but a 
crystallized thought of God. The 
beautiful, many-tinted robe of 
verdure that spring weaves to 
cover the nakedness of earth's 
continents and islands is but a 
conception of Deity materialized 
and painted with the colors of 
the rainbow that encircles the 
great white throne. All material 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 73 

things, from the mightiest world 
that glows in the far-off depths of 
space down to the tiniest atom 
in the soil underneath our feet, 
are only the thoughts of the Most 
High embalmed in material forms 
for the delectation and spiritual 
elevation of his intelligent crea- 
tures. When we study nature, 
then, we are, to use the language 
of the immortal Kepler, ^'only 
rethinking the thoughts of God," 
and thus holding communion 
with the infinite mind that 
planned the universe. 

Now, suppose all these limita- 
tions were removed — this neces- 
sity to sleep, this necessity to toil, 
this necessity to die — so that not 
a mere fraction but the whole of 
man's time could be devoted to 



74 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

the acquisition of knowledge; 
and suppose that gravitation's 
cord were severed, so that man 
could take wings and soar 

" From star to star, 
From world to luminous world as far 
As the universe spreads its flaming- 
walls," 

with naught to do throughout 
eternity but to study everywhere 
the handiwork of God — who can 
say where man's knowledge 
would end? Doubtless he would 
after a time become vastly wiser 
than the loftiest archangel now 
is. 

Remember that in all this sup- 
position w^hich I have made I 
have added nothing to man's 
powers; I have simply taken 
man as he is, and have removed 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 75 

these limitations from him, and 
sent him out to exercise his pow- 
ers. And this supposition must 
be made. These Hmitations ex- 
ist. If they did not exist, man's 
achievements would have been 
almost infinitely greater than they 
have been. I repeat that these 
limitations must be removed in 
thought in order that they may 
make a proper estimate of man's 
capacities. 

Now, is it not reasonable to 
suppose that after awhile these 
limitations will be removed ? We 
believe that the Creator is infi- 
nitely wise. Would an all- wise 
God create a being, give him 
such wonderful powers, and then 
limit these powers in such a way 
with no intention of ever remov- 



76 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

ing these limitations? If man is 
to live for a few fleeting years, 
and then pass away and be no 
more, why give him these won- 
derful powers? Why not make 
him like the ox, which looks 
upon the myriad beauties of na- 
ture with no feelings of admira- 
tion and no aspirations after any- 
thing more than a sufficiency of 
food to satisfy hunger? Man 
has endowments and aspirations 
which he does not need merely 
as a denizen of this w^orld. Why 
give him these lofty powers, and 
then place such limitations upon 
them? Is this Godlike? Sup- 
pose that a man were thus to act? 
Suppose one of New York's 
great millionaires should go out 
West and search until he finds on 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 77 

the summit of a range of moun- 
tains near the Pacific coast a Ut- 
tle pond at a point far from any 
railway or thoroughfare of trav- 
el, far from any city or village 
or habitation of civilized man; 
and suppose that there in that 
little pond he builds, at great ex- 
pense, a ship perfect in all its 
appointments, and vastly larger 
than the Great Eastern? How 
would you regard such an act? 
However much you might admire 
the skill of the architect, and the 
beauty of the ship's adornments, 
you would pronounce it an act 
of folly to put such a ship in that 
place. You would say that if 
the man wanted a ship for use in 
the little pond he ought to have 
built a canoe, and that if he de- 



78 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

sired to build a ship of such pro- 
digious dimensions he ought to 
have put it not in a Httle pond, 
where there is no room for the 
play of its mighty machinery, 
but out upon the bosom of the 
ocean, where it could have been 
utilized for the purposes of com- 
merce, where it could have con- 
tributed its quota to the wants of 
civilized man. Now, is God less 
wise than man? Precisely so, if 
skepticism be true. If there is 
no life beyond the grave, then 
the God of the universe has built 
the Great Eastern and put it in a 
pond. He has made man and 
given him all those marvelous 
powers of which I have spoken, 
and then placed upon these pow- 
ers such limitations that they can 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

never be adequately exercised. 
Man, amid the environments of 
this life, chained down to earth, 
toiling, suffering, dying, is as 
completely cribbed, cabined, 
and confined" as the Great 
Eastern would be in a pond. 

But suppose that about the 
time we have grown hoarse 
laughing over the supposed folly 
of our great millionaire he grave- 
ly informs us that he has con- 
structed a great ship railway, 
similar to that which Eads pro- 
jected across the American isth- 
mus ; and suppose that we stand 
by and see that mighty ship, by 
the aid of well-devised ma- 
chinery, lifted from the little 
pond, moved along the iron 
track, and floated out upon the 



8o IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

bosom of the ocean; then where 
would be the folly? Now, this 
exactly illustrates the ways of 
Providence. God has put the 
Great Eastern — the human soul 
— in a pond, but he has alsa 
constructed a great ship railway, 
called the railway of death, by 
means of which he expects after 
a time to lift this mighty ship 
from the diminutive pond of 
time, and float it out upon the 
vast and boundless ocean of 
eternity. 

Take another illustration. You 
are traveling through a forest, 
when you come upon the nest of 
a bird. In the nest you find a 
diminutive egg. Taking the egg 
in your hand, you notice in one 
place a small aperture, betoken- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 8l 



ing the fact that the period of 
incubation has passed — that the 
egg is just ready to hatch. You 
break the shell, and in it you 
find a living bird. Just then some 
one approaches you and says: 
" You ought not to have broken 
that shell. It was not the intent 
of nature that the shell should 
ever be broken." What would 
be your reply? You would say: 
''That cannot be. The bird 
has wings, and those wings are 
wondrously adapted to locomo- 
tion through the air. It has eyes, 
and there is a marvelous correla- 
tion between those organs of 
vision and God's golden sun- 
light. It has lungs, and there is 
a wondrous correlation between 
those organs of respiration and 
6 



82 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 



the balmy, life-giving air. It has 
feet, and they seem made for 
walking or perching. It has a 
beak, a stomach, and various or- 
gans that may be eminently serv- 
iceable to it out of the shell, but 
are wholely useless in the shell. 
Thus its whole anatomical struc- 
ture proclaims the fact that it 
was not the intent of nature that 
it should remain shut up in its 
tiny shell. If this had been the 
intent of nature, its organism 
would not have been so complex; 
it would have been built on the 
plan of the oyster, without feath- 
ers, wings, feet, or eyes. Those 
wings were not made to lie for- 
ever folded, but to be exercised 
in darting through the air. Those 
eyes were not rnade to be forever 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 83 

curtained in darkness, but to be 
exercised in gazing upon the 
myriad beauties of nature. Those 
feet were not made to be a mere 
useless appendage to a shell-im- 
prisoned creature, but to be ex- 
ercised in walking upon terra 
jirma^ or perching upon twig or 
bough. Every part of its anatom- 
ical structure proclaims the fact 
that it was not the intent of na- 
ture that it should remain caged 
in that little, dark prison house, 
but that after a time the shell 
should be broken, and the eye 
opened, and the lungs inflated, 
and the wings expanded, and a 
new and a higher life entered 
upon." Now, what is the ab- 
stract principle here brought to 
light? Simply this, that every 



84 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

power is intended not to lie dor- 
mant but to be exercised. If 
any power lies dormant for a 
time, it is only for a time, only 
during an embryo life that is 
indubitably prophetic of a higher 
life. Capability indicates des- 
tiny. That this principle applies 
to man as well as to the lower 
animals, no sane man will ques- 
tion. We have already seen that 
man has powers that can never 
be adequately exercised in this 
present life. Man in this life is 
as completely an embryo as is 
the unhatched bird. What then 
is the conclusion w^hich reason 
forces upon us as regards his 
destiny? Certainly nothing less 
than this, that the embryo life is 
intended to culminate in a higher 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 85 

life. So, then, every part of 
man's mental constitution, every 
power of intellect and conscience 
and heart, proclaims the fact that 
he v^as made for a nobler exist- 
ence than is possible to him amid 
the environments of the present 
life; that it is the intent of na- 
ture — or rather, I should say, of 
nature's God — that after a time 
the earthen shell that shuts him 
up in the little, dark prison house 
of this terrestrial life shall be 
broken, and the spirit eye 
opened, and the spirit w^ing ex- 
panded, and a new and higher 
life entered upon. 

• Away, then, with your heathen- 
ish ideas of death ! What is the 
popular conception of death as 
embalmed in earth's literature? 



86 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 



Is it not usually described as an 
unmitigated evil, the direst ca- 
lamity that ever befell our race ? 
The entire vocabulary of all 
earth's babbling tongues has 
been ransacked in order to find 
epithets sufficiently strong to ex- 
press our utter abhorrence of 
this most dreaded of all human 
experiences. Imagination, with 
all her Godlike powders, has 
been w^earied to exhaustion in 
searching for imagery adequate 
to represent the gloom of the 
grave. And wath this conception 
our actions correspond. When 
death invades the family circle, 
and lays his icy fingers upon 
those we love, and bears them 
from our presence, we bow our 
heads like bulrushes, we array 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 87 

ourselves in the somber habili- 
ments of mourning, we walk with 
funeral tread and speak in se- 
pulchral tones, we banish smiles 
from our faces and joy from our 
hearts and homes. In short, we 
speak and act precisely as we 
would do 

'*If aU our hopes and all our fears 
Were prisoned in life's narrow bounds; 
If, travelers through this vale of tears, 
We saw no better world beyond." 

Amazing folly ! What we com- 
mit to the tomb is not the friend 
we love ; it is only the house he 
used to live in. That friend, in 
all that constitutes his essential 
personality, still lives ; and, what- 
ever it may be to others, to the 
good man death is not in any 
sense of the word a calamitv, 



88 



IS MAX IMMORTAL? 



and we ought never so to regard 
it. We should never conceive of 
death as a vast subterranean 
prison house, within whose 
gloomy dungeons the souls of 
men are shut up forever; we 
should rather regard it as the 
vestibule of a celestial temple 
that is infinitely spacious and 
transcendently glorious. Death 
is not the dark, lowering cloud 
whose muttering thunders por- 
tend a coming storm that shall 
spread devastation and ruin in its 
track; it is rather the many-col- 
ored bow of promise that spans 
the heavens, a thing of beauty, 
a herald of coming benefactions, 
and a token of divine good will. 
Death, the king of terrors, as he 
is to a large part of our race, is 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 89 

not the monster that he seems — 
Death, the huge black-winged 
angel who has been for six 
thousand years perpetually hov- 
ering over our earth, casting 
his dark shadows athwart every 
pathway and across every house- 
hold and into every heart — 
Death, terror-striking as is his 
visage, has one office to perform 
for our race, and one only — viz., 
to break the shell that shuts us up 
in the little, dark prison house of 
this earthly life, and allow the 
soul to unfold its golden pinions 
and soar aloft to those celestial 
heights where the omnipotent 
One unveils his face and un- 
folds his glories to the adoring 
gaze of the hierarchies of the 
upper sky. And in that glorious 



90 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

future life, to whatever spot the 
soul shall wend its way, it shall 
continually behold new manifes- 
tations of the power and the 
wisdom and the goodness and 
the love of God ; and when ten 
thousand times ten million ages 
shall have passed away in this 
delightful employ, if a doubt 
should arise, and the soul should 
address its Maker, and say,. 

O, thou great Father of all,, 
will my existence ever termi- 
nate?" Then from the she- 
kinal splendors that beam upon 
the mercy seat and illuminate 
the holy of holies of the universe,, 
there would come a voice, louder 
than the blast of the archangel's 
resurrection trumpet, louder than 
the reverberating roll of ten thou- 



IS MAN IMMORTAL? 9 1 

sand judgment day thunders, pro- 
claiming these words: " Hear, O 
heavens, and give ear, O earth, 
the soul of man is as immortal as 
its sire. It shall never die, 
never, until hell shall hold a ju- 
bilee, and the angels sing a fu- 
neral anthem over the grave of 
God.'' 

Let us, then, when we think 
of the departed, do so not in the 
strain of the infidel when he tells 
us that ^*it is all of life to live 
and all of death to die," but 
rather in the strain of the poet 
when she sings: 

Over the river they beckon to me, 
Loved ones that have crossed to the 
farther side ; 
The gleam of their snowy robes I see, 
But their voices are lost in the dash- 
ing tide. 



92 IS MAN IMMORTAL? 

And I sit and think as the sunset's gold 
Is flushing river and hill and shore, 

I shall one day stand by the waters cold, 
And list for the sound of the boat- 
man's oar. 

I shall watch for a gleam of the glisten- 
ing sail, 

I shall hear the boat as It gains the 
strand, 

I shall pass from sight with the boatman 
pale, 

To the better shore of the spirit land; 
I shall know the loved who have gone 
before, 

And joyfully sweet will the meeting be. 
When over the river, the peaceful river, 
The angel of death shall carry me. 



PART 11. 

God in Nature. 

(93) 



Note. 



The reader will find in this lec- 
ture several pages that are also con- 
tained in the previous lecture, Is 
Man Immortal ? " This need not 
be v^ondered at when it is remem- 
bered that this book is simply a 
collection of independent lectures. 
The author prefers to give both 
lectures as delivered rather than to 
mar either by a hurtful omission. 

(94) 



GOD IN NATURE. 



Whence came man ? It is cer- 
tain that man has not always ex- 
isted. The time was when philos- 
ophers were silly enough to talk 
about an eternal succession of 
men, animals, etc., but that time 
has forever passed away. Geol- 
ogy has demonstrated the fact 
that man had a beginning. 
Whence, then, came the first 
man? O," says one, ''man 
was developed from an ape, and 
that from some lower form of life, 
and that from some form lower 
still, and so on." 

Now, suppose we grant that 
this is true. Of course we do 
not grant it as a matter of fact, 

(95) 



go GOD IN NATURE. 

for evolution in this form rests 
upon the dogma of the transmu- 
tation of species, and this is a 
sheer hypothesis unsupported by 
a single scintilla of scientific evi- 
dence. But though we do not 
admit it as a matter of fact, sup- 
pose we grant for the sake of ar- 
gument that this evolution theory 
is true. What then? Are we any 
nearer a solution of the problem 
than we were before ? Let us see. 

Let us trace man's genealogy 
back through every imaginable 
link until we reach the primitive 
form of animal life, the first di- 
minutive protozoan that disport- 
ed itself in the waters of earth's 
primeval ocean. This protozoan, 
we will suppose, is a lump of 
jelly smaller than a mustard seed, 



GOD IN NATURE. 97 

having no head, no hands, no 
feet, no wings, no eyes, no ears, 
no stomach, no organs of any 
kind. It is simply a very small, 
almost shapeless, lump of jelly, 
alive and capable of certain mo- 
tions. 

We have traced man's geneal- 
ogy back, we will say, to this ig- 
noble ancestry. But the question 
with which we started out still 
confronts us. Whence the pro- 
tozoan? There is still a vast 
chasm intervening between even 
that lowest form of life and non- 
living matter, and this chasm 
science is unable to bridge. The 
origination of life in any form 
is an achievement impossible to 
man. It would be as easy for 
the scientist to create a solar sys- 
7 



98 GOD IN NATURE. 

tern and people it with archangels 
as to produce a monad or even 
a single particle of living bio- 
plasm. And not only is it true 
that man cannot produce animal 
life, but it is equally true that he 
cannot account for its produc- 
tion. Spontaneous generation is 
only an atheistic dream. 

Wherein, then, has evolution 
aided us? On scientific princi- 
ples we are utterly unable to ac- 
count for the protozoan, even if 
it were nothing more than a pro- 
tozoan. But, if we accept the 
evolution hypothesis, what we 
then have to account for is not 
simply a protozoan, but a proto- 
zoan that has in it all the capa- 
bilities of the genus homo, ''In- 
volution must always equal evo- 



GOD IN NATURE. 99 

lution." You cannot get out of 
a thing that which has not been 
put into it. If our protozoanjs to 
develop into man, then we must 
put into it all the mighty possi- 
bilities that belong to human na- 
ture. Now, a protozoan that 
shall develop into man is as diffi- 
cult to account for as is man him- 
self. Hence, the evolution hy- 
pothesis has not aided us in the 
least. The question with which 
we began still confronts us in un- 
diminished mystery, Whence 
came the first man" — man in 
embryo, if we will have it so? 

To this question materialism 
jnakes reply after this fashion: 
^'O! there is no mystery about 
it. The universe is the neces- 
sary product of natural causes. 



lOO GOD IN NATURE. 



The great forces of nature — light, 
heat, magnetism, electricity, 
gravitation, etc. — operating upon 
a universe of chaotic matter, 
have produced all the worlds and 
all the multitudinous forms of life 
that inhabit them, man included. ' ' 

Thus we are asked to believe 
that the whole fabric of nature is 
the product of forces impersonal 
and unintelligent. 

This proposition we contro- 
vert. We affirm that nature fur- 
nishes incontrovertible evidence 
of design. Now, how is the 
point at issue to be decided? 
How are we to know whether the 
order apparent in nature is de- 
signed order? Manifestly, the 
question must be decided in pre- 
cisely the same way that we 



GOD IN NATURE. lOI 

would decide the same question 
in regard to any other object. 
How, then, do we decide whether 
any object is the product of in- 
telligence ? 

Just here we reach the very 
boundary lines of psychological 
investigation. The intellectual 
process here involved is one that 
defies analysis. The ultimatum 
is a state of absolute certitude, 
but how that state is reached who 
will undertake to tell? To illus- 
trate: Suppose some one should 
point to a spacious and elegant 
church edifice, and say: ''How 
do you know that that structure 
is a contrivance?" Suppose he 
reasons thus: " I know that this 
building is beautifully adapted to 
the purpose which it now serves. 



I02 GOD IN NATURE. 



Roof, floor, doors, windows, ros- 
trum, pews, and aisles are all 
nicely adjusted to the wants of 
those who here assemble. But 
how do you know that it was 
planned by an intelligent mind? 
May it not be a product of mere 
natural forces? May not man 
have found the house just as it 
is and simply appropriated it to 
his own uses?" Now, how can 
this question be answered ? How 
can we prove that the stately 
church edifice is a contrivance? 
Of course, if we saw the house 
built, or if we can produce cred- 
ible witnesses who saw it built, 
then our task is an easy one. But 
suppose the building were one of 
those ancient structures like the 
ruins of Central America, con- 



GOD IN NATURE. IO3 

cerning whose origin history is 
silent, then what would be our 
answer? In that case our task 
would be a difficult one, as diffi- 
cult as that of analyzing con- 
sciousness and explaining its 
processes. Can any man tell 
how he knows that he loves his 
mother? Certainly not. Here 
the acutest metaphysician is as 
utterly impotent as the untutored 
red man of the forest. All that 
either can say is: I know that 
my feelings toward my mother 
are those of love, and not of 
hate." How he knows no sane 
man will undertake to explain. 

Now, as with consciousness, 
so with the intellectual process 
here involved. We know that 
when we see a house, a watch, a 



I04 GOD IN NATURE. 

steam engine, or a telegraph in- 
strument, and understand its uses, 
we at once, without the slightest 
hesitation, pronounce it a con- 
trivance ; but the process by 
which this conclusion is reached 
we do not undertake to explain. 
We simply say: " My mind is so 
constituted that when I see ad- 
justments so nice and adaptations 
so perfect I cannot help regard- 
ing them as the products of in- 
telligence. I cannot, if I would, 
regard them as freaks of chance 
or the products of unintelligent 
forces. Having an effect before 
me, I am compelled by the very 
constitution of my mind to pos- 
tulate a cause adequate to pro- 
duce the effect, and in this case 
a cause adequate to produce the 



GOD IN NATURE. I OS 

effect is necessarily an intelligent 
cause." 

Is not this conclusive? The 
man who would persist in de- 
manding a reason for believing 
that a house is the product of ^in- 
telligence would be universally 
regarded as a madman. Now, 
if we ascribe a house, a watch, 
or a steam engine to an intelli- 
gent mind as its cause, then by 
what logic can we avoid apply- 
ing the same principle to all ob- 
jects that have similar adjust- 
ments and correlations? If there 
is any reason w^hy this principle 
should apply to one class of ob- 
jects and not to another, it de- 
volves upon the atheist to draw 
the line between the two — to 
show why it should apply to one 



I06 GOD IN NATURE. 



class and not to another. Since 
this has never been done, we are 
forced to consider this princi- 
ple as of universal application. 
''True in one, true in all;" or 
else, ''false in one, false in all" — 
these are the two horns of the di- 
lemma upon which atheism finds 
herself impaled . Either she must 
deny that such objects as houses^ 
watches, steam engines, etc., are 
contrivances in all cases where 
witnesses of their construction 
cannot be produced, or else she 
must admit that the whole fabric 
of nature, man included, is a 
product of intelligence. 

Let us go somewhat into detail 
on this point. Let us first con- 
sider man as to his physical or- 
ganism. 



GOD IN NATURE. I07 

The human body is a most 
wonderful piece of mechanism. 
In the multiplicity of its parts, in 
the nicety of its adjustments, in 
the variety of function and facil- 
ity of action of its various organs, 
and in the marvelous correlations 
by which all its multifarious parts 
are built into one harmonious 
whole, it is the greatest of all 
marvels of mechanical ingenuity. 

Consider the eye, for exam- 
ple. The human eye is one of 
the most wonderful instruments 
known to science. Its anatom- 
ical structure is a marvel; the of- 
fices it performs a greater mar- 
vel still. It can descry objects 
finer than a needle's point, and it 
can contemplate worlds at a dis- 
tance of multiplied millions of 



I08 GOD IN NATURE. 



miles. Yet, in order that it may 
perform its functions at all, it 
must have light. Without light 
the eye has no more power to see 
than has a stone. The fountain 
whence light must come is ninety- 
two and a half million miles away. 
Yet that amazing distance light 
traverses in less than eight min- 
utes. Light, with its accompa- 
nying heat, lifts into the air mil- 
lions of tons of water every day. 
It is the source of every motion 
of the atmosphere, from the gen- 
tle zephyr to the terrible tornado 
that sweeps across a continent, 
spreading devastation and ruin in 
its track. Yet this swiftly mov- 
ing, all-powerful agent, light, 
falls upon the e3'e so gently that 
not pain but all the indescriba- 



GOD IN NATURE. IO9 

ble pleasures of vision are the re- 
sult. Now this correlation be- 
tween the eye and light is un- 
questionably one of the most mar- 
velous correlations known to sci- 
ence. Is it an undesigned cor- 
relation ? Did natural forces pro- 
duce the eye with all its adapta- 
tions and powers ? Can any sane 
mind study the structure of the 
eye and the properties of light so 
as to understand how the phe- 
nomena of vision are produced, 
and then deny that there is an in- 
tentional adaptation of the one 
to the other? The telescope is 
thought to be a wonderful con- 
trivance; yet lives there a man 
outside the walls of a lunatic asy- 
lum who regards the telescope as 
rivaling or even approximating 



no GOD IN NATURE. 



the human eye as a piece of 
mechanism ? Every mark of de- 
sign found in the one exists in 
the other in far greater plenitude. 
Hence, if the telescope is the 
product of intellect, so is the hu- 
man eye. 

And as with the eye, so with 
the ear. The w^orld of sound ; 
what a marvelous world it is ! 
Who can describe its vastness 
and variety? Yet this world of 
wonders owes its existence to a 
correlation between man's au- 
ditory apparatus and the earth's 
atmosphere. Was this correla- 
tion produced without the agen- 
cy of intellect? Did natural 
forces produce the ear and give 
it its power to gather up certain 
aerial vibrations that impinge 



GOD IN NATURE. Ill 

upon it, and out of them create 
this vast, marvelous world of 
sound, including all the music of 
the universe? It would be as 
rational to assert that the sails of 
a ship were made by the winds. 
If the telephone is a manufac- 
tured article, so is the human ear. 

Consider the circulatory sys- 
tem. No one will deny that the 
waterworks of one of our modern 
cities evince design. Make the 
attempt to believe that the water- 
works of one of our American 
cities were produced by natural 
forces; that by the operation of 
light, heat, magnetism, electric- 
ity, etc., certain particles of mat- 
ter gathered themselves together 
in such a way as to produce the 
reservoir, and certain other par- 



112 



GOD IN NATURE. 



tides came together so as to con- 
struct all the subterranean aque- 
ducts, large and small, and that 
certain other particles came to- 
gether in such a way as to pro- 
duce the hydrants just where they 
are needed, in street, store, and 
dwelling. It will be seen that 
such a feat is impossible. If this 
be true, then what of the blood 
works of the human body? You 
cannot put down the point of a 
needle anywhere on the surface 
of the body without striking a 
blood vessel. What an incom- 
prehensible number of blood ves- 
sels does this indicate, and how 
infinitesimally small they must be ! 
Yet through even the minutest 
ramifications of this vast system 
the crimson current flows unceas- 



GOD IN NATURE. II3 

ingly, carrying with unerring pre- 
cision the fresh, pure pabulum of 
Hfe to every point where it is 
needed. Would it not be easier 
to believe, in the absence of his- 
toric information, that the water- 
works of any city were produced 
without the agency of intellect 
than that man's circulatory sys- 
tem was so produced? 

Consider also the digestive or- 
gans. If it is regarded as a tri- 
umph of engineering skill to con- 
vert dense metal or solid rock 
into an attenuated gas, then what 
of man's digestive apparatus, by 
means of which ten thousand sub- 
stances, gathered from every 
realm of nature, are transmuted 
into living bioplasm, and then 
built into the tissues of the body 
8 



114 NATURE. 

— muscle, nerve, bone, hair, etc. ? 
This adaptation of ten thousand 
substances to man's digestive ap- 
paratus and to the necessities of 
his physical nature — is this unde- 
signed? Who can believe it? 

And there are the respiratory 
organs. The body is so consti- 
tuted that it must have fresh, 
pure air, or life would soon be- 
come extinct. Examine careful- 
ly the entire respiratory appa- 
ratus, and it will be seen that it 
is an absolutely perfect machine. 
Human ingenuity can suggest no 
improvement whatever. Were 
those respiratory organs pro- 
duced by unintelligent forces? 
Who can accept such madhouse 
logic ? 

Were w^e to take up the nerv- 



GOD IN NATURE. II5 

ous system, the osseous frame- 
work, and all other parts of the 
body, and examine them care- 
fully, we should find each exhib- 
iting incontrovertible proofs that 
it is a machine devised by intel- 
ligence for a specific purpose. 
And if this is true of each organ 
separately 5 how vastly is the force 
of the argument increased when 
we consider the body as a whole ! 
If the human body is not the 
product of intelligence, then, in 
the absence of positive testimony 
concerning its construction, it 
would be impossible to prove 
that any implement known to civ- 
ilization had its origin in intel- 
lect; for no instrument of man's 
devising is at all comparable to 
it as a piece of mechanism. 



Il6 GOD IN NATURE. 

And this argument applies with 
still greater force to the mind. 
How vast the range of the human 
intellect! Think of all the sci- 
ences — physics, chemistry, bot- 
any, zoology, astronomy, geol- 
ogy, etc. I What a sum total of 
intellectual achievement do they 
indicate! Think of conscience, 
that queenly faculty which is the 
source of many of the noblest 
achievements of our race. Think 
also of benevolence and of all 
those actions grounded in it which 
constitute the richest treasures of 
human history. Think of the 
hopes, the fears, the aspirations, 
the affections of every kind that 
make up the emotional nature. 
Survey the mind in its manifold 
capacities. Is it conceivable that 



GOD IN NATURE. II7 

this mind is the product of mere 
natural forces unguided by intel- 
ligence? 

If natural forces cannot pro- 
duce the steam engine, then how 
can they produce the mind that 
contrived the steam engine and 
created all the sciences and all 
the arts of civilized life? Think 
of man as a whole. Bring into 
view all his mental powers, and 
then this marvelously endowed 
spirit as tenanting this wondrous- 
ly constructed body; and as you 
do so repeat the question, 
''Whence came man?" Is he 
the product of forces irnpersonal 
and unintelligent ? When we see 
a watch, a steam engine, or a tel- 
egraph instrument produced by 
natural forces unguided by intel- 



Il8 GOD IN NATURE. 



ligence, we shall then be ready to 
consider the possibility of man's 
having been so produced. Until 
then, we shall continue to believe 
that there is an eternal, uncre- 
ated, omnipotent, omniscient, 
omnipresent Spirit, infinitely 
good, who created man in his 
own image. 

Having considered the micro- 
cosm — the universe within man — 
we shall now consider the macro- 
cosm — the universe outside of 
man — or at least that part of it 
that lies within the domain of the 
science of astronomj\ The state- 
ments of astronomers concern- 
ing the magnitude, motions, and 
distances pf the heavenly bodies 
are so stupendous that the uned- 
ucated mind is prone to regard 



GOD IN NATURE. II9 

them as the vagaries of a disor- 
dered brain and no more worthy 
of credence than the tales of 
Munchausen or the legends of 
the Alhambra. I shall therefore 
present a few facts which show 
the reliability of the teachings of 
astronomy. 

In the first place I mention the 
fact that the art of chronometry, 
or time-measuring, depends for 
its very existence upon the sci- 
ence of astronomy. The invent- 
ive genius of the present age 
has constructed instruments that 
mark the flow of time with mar- 
velous precision; but the most 
perfect chronometer needs to be 
set and regulated, and this can be 
done only by means of the nice 
observations and wonderful com- 



I20 GOD IN NATURE. 



putations of astronom3\ Our 
clocks are set by the stars ; " our 
railroads and factories are run by 
time which the astronomer brings 
down from the skies." iVstron- 
omy also regulates the calendar. 
Think what confusion would 
arise if the seasons were contin- 
ually shifting around the year. 
Suppose winter should c ome 
every year a little earlier, until 
after a while midwinter would be 
in June; and suppose this proc- 
ess should continue perpetually, 
every month becoming success- 
ively a winter month. How cha- 
otic would be our chronology ! 
If we should read in history that 
an event occurred centuries ago 
in the month of June, we would 
not know whether June was then 



GOD IN NATURE. 121 

a summer, or a winter, or a spring 
month. Now, but for astronomy, 
this phenomenon would occur; 
the seasons would be perpetually 
shifting around the year. ''Well- 
informed people know that this 
was the case in ancient times. 
In the days of Julius C^sar the 
civil equinox differed from the 
astronomical by three months, 
so that the winter months were 
carried back into the autumnal 
and the autumnal into the sum- 
mer. In order to correct this 
error, C^sar decreed that the 
708th year from the building of 
Rome (47 B.C.) should consist of 
four hundred and forty-five days. 
Other corrections of the calendar 
have been made as the result of 
astronomical research." Thus 



122 



GOD IN NATURE. 



we see that the Muse of history 
can write her dates correctly only 
after consultation with the stu- 
dent of the skies. 

In the next place, let us con- 
sider the preyision of the astron- 
omer, his predictions of celestial 
phenomena. An eclipse never 
takes him by surprise. He fore- 
tells its coming years in advance 
with the utmost exactitude, point- 
ing out not only the day and hour 
but the very minute and second 
both of its commencement and 
its ending. No transit, occulta- 
tion, or conjunction ever steals 
upon him unawares. He notifies 
the world long beforehand, and 
often makes a journey of half 
the circumference of the earth in 
order to secure a favorable posi- 



GOD IN NATURE. I 23 

tion for making his observations 
of these phenomena. And there 
is no mistake. Precisely at the 
moment designated the predicted 
event begins, and precisely at the 
appointed time it comes to an end. 
This is an absolute demonstration 
of the correctness of astronom- 
ical methods and the certainty of 
astronomical conclusions. 

As another incontestable proof 
that the teachings of astronomy 
are true, I invite attention to the 
method by which astronomical ad- 
measurements are made. To il- 
lustrate: You are on the sea- 
shore, and, looking out upon the 
bosom of the deep, you behold a 
little speck upon the far-away 
line where sea and sky seem to 
come together. That diminutive 



124 GOD IN NATURE. 

speck, scarcely perceptible, is a 
large and beautiful ship, bearing 
upon its decks a cargo more 
precious than rubies, a cargo of 
human life. You ask: How far 
away is that ship ? " A surveyor 
is present. He replies; "1 can 
soon tell you." So he lays off 
on the shore a base hne of defi- 
nite length, and then goes to one 
end of this base Hne, and with 
his theodohte measures the angle 
which this base hne makes with 
the hne of vision going from his 
eye to the ship. He then goes 
to the other end of the base hne 
and does the same thing. Hav- 
ing one side and two angles of 
a triangle, a simple trigonomet- 
rical calculation gives the dis- 
tance with as great precision as 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 25 

if he had measured it with a tape- 
line. Again: While travehng you 
behold in the dim and hazy dis- 
tance the glittering, snow-clad 
summit of a lofty mountain range, 
towering above the intervening 
hills and looking like a brilliant 
sunlit cloud fringing the distant 
horizon. You ask: ''How far 
away is that mountain ? ' ' Quick- 
ly your surveyor takes his meas- 
urements of line and angles, and 
your question is answered. And 
not only are you told how far 
away that mountain is; you are 
also told how high it is above the 
spot where you stand, and above 
the level of the sea. 

Does some one still shake his 
head and inquire, " How do you 
know that these calculations are 



126 GOD IN NATURE. 



correct?" If so, then we are 
prepared to furnish ocular dem- 
onstration of their correctness. 
A railroad company desires to 
construct a tunnel for miles 
through a mountain of solid rock. 
Two companies of laborers are 
set to work on opposite sides of 
the mountain. After years of 
toil, they meet in its center, when, 
m.arvelous to tell, it is seen that 
walls and floor and roof of the 
two excavations coincide exact- 
ly. There is nowhere a diver- 
gence of more than a small frac- 
tion of an inch. Now this mar- 
velous result is achieved by means 
of the mathematical process of 
triangulation, the very process 
employed in ascertaining the 
height of a mountain or the dis- 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 27 

tance of a ship from the shore. 
And the method by which these 
terrestrial distances and magni- 
tudes are determined is precisely 
the same method employed by 
the astronomer in measuring ce- 
lestial distances and magnitudes. 
In order to measure the distance 
of a star from the earth it is only 
necessary to get a base line, and 
then measure the angles which 
this base line makes with the two 
lines of vision going from the 
ends of this base line to the star. 
Then a very simple calculation 
gives the distance of the star. 
The process is exactly the same as 
that by which the surveyor meas- 
ures the height of a mountain or 
the distance of a ship from the 
shore. The only difference is 



128 



GOD IN NATURE. 



that in the astronomical problem 
it is much more difficult to make 
the angular measurements, much 
more delicate instruments and 
much greater nicety of observa- 
tion being required. But when 
the measurements are taken, the 
calculation is the same in both 
cases. These facts are an abso- 
lute demonstration of the relia- 
bility of the teachings of astron- 
omy. The simple truth is that 
no sane man can study astrono- 
my, after having mastered the 
higher mathematics, and then call 
in question the absolute correct- 
ness of its methods and the prox- 
imate certainty of its conclusions. 
The only possible errors are in 
making the angular measure- 
ments, and with the delicate in- 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 29 

struments and skillful observa- 
tions of the present day these are 
comparatively small. 

We will now consider a few of 
the more important facts which 
have been discovered by astro- 
nomical investigation. The first 
great fact is that the earth re- 
volves upon its axis once in twen- 
ty°four hours, thus bringing about 
the succession of day and night, 
and that it revolves in its orbit 
once in three hundred aud sixty- 
five and a fourth days, thus pro- 
ducing the changes of the sea- 
sons. Several of the stars which 
gleam upon us nightly from the 
heavens above belong to the same 
category; they revolve around 
the sun in varying periods of time, 
each one whirling upon its axis 
9 



130 GOD IN NATURE. 

as it goes. These stars (the earth 
included) are called planets. Sev- 
eral of them have satellites, or 
moons, revolving around them. 

The sun and the stars that cir- 
cle around it, with their attendant 
moons, make up what is called the 
solar system, which we will now 
consider very briefly. First we 
will take a glance at the sun. Its 
size first merits attention. Strange 
as it may seem to those unac- 
quainted with astronomy, the sun 
is one million two hundred and 
forty-five thousand times as large 
as the earth. Try to compre- 
hend that statement. If one mil- 
lion silver dollars were placed be- 
fore you and you were required 
to count them one by one, it 
would take you a solid month to 



GOD IN NATURE. I3I 

perform the task, supposing you 
to work ten hours a day and to 
count at the rate of fifty a minute. 
With this conception of the mag- 
nitude of the idea involved in the 
term one million, imagine one 
million two hundred and forty- 
five thousand worlds like this 
molded into one world, and im- 
agine this huge world set on fire, 
and you have a crude view of our 
glorious orb of day. 

Around this huge globe of fire 
the planets revolve and from it 
receive an unceasing supply of 
light and heat. The nearest of 
these to the sun is Mercury. 
Mercury is rarely seen by the 
naked eye. Occasionally a sharp 
eye, by close watching, may catch 
a glimpse of it just before sun- 



132 GOD IN NATURE. 

rise or just after sunset. But the 
view is quite momentary. Quick- 
ly he hides behind the western 
hills, or fades away amid the 
splendors of the morning. But, 
after all, this insignificant-look- 
ing specimen of the genus planet, 
which is continually hiding itself 
amid the folds of the sun's robes 
as if it were afraid that the glance 
of our sinful eyes would pollute it, 
is a very respectable-sized w^orld. 
It is no less than nine thousand 
miles in circumference, so that 
it would take a tourist, traveling 
at the rate of twenty-five miles 
a day, no less than a year to go 
around it. It receives about six 
times as much light and heat 
from the sun as the earth does. 
A heat six times as great as that 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 33 

of one of our tropical summers 
would make a very respectable 
purgatory. But if Mercury's 
summers are hot, they are exceed- 
ingly short. Its year is only 
eighty-eight days long; hence 
each of its seasons lasts only 
about twenty-two days. 

Next in order comes Venus, 
apparently the largest and bright- 
est star in the heavens. In size 
it is about equal to the earth. Its 
year is equal to two hundred and 
twenty-four of our days, a little 
over seven months. Its seasons 
are therefore a little less than two 
months in length. It is enveloped 
by an atmosphere similar to that 
of the earth . Neither of these in- 
traterrestrial planets has a moon. 

Passing by the earth and its 



134 NATURE. 

moon, we come to Mars, con- 
spicuous in our terrestrial sky 
for its size and its fiery red color. 
In size this planet is considerably 
larger than Mercury, though its 
diameter is only about half that 
of the earth. It revolves on its 
axis in about twenty-four hours; 
hence its days and nights are just 
about equal to ours in length. Its 
year is nearly equal to two of our 
years; consequently its seasons 
are about twice as long as ours. 
Like Venus and the earth, it has 
an atmosphere. Its surface is di- 
versified by land and water, con- 
tinents and oceans, just as the- 
earth's surface is; and there are 
accumulations of ice and snow 
around its poles just as there are 
around the poles of the earth* 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 35 

Moreover, these polar ice fields 
partially melt away in summer, 
just as they do here. Mars has 
two moons. These are both quite 
small, but they are so near the 
planet that they appear much 
larger, seen from its surface, than 
our moon appears to us. 

Just outside the orbit of Mars 
we come upon a number of plan- 
ets so small that they cannot be 
seen with the naked eye. The 
number of them known at pres- 
ent is more than five hundred, 
and new ones are being discov- 
ered continually. The largest is 
only about three hundred miles 
in diameter, and most of them 
are very much smaller. Some 
of them are said to be not more 
than twenty miles in diameter. 



136 GOD IN NATURE. 

Twenty miles in diameter means 
sixty miles in circumference. 
Just think of it ! Wouldn't it be 
grand to live in a world so small 
that you could drive entirely 
around it in a day with a horse 
and buggy? Why, you could 
live in perpetual daylight or per- 
petual night, just as you might 
prefer. If you were to start early 
in the morning and travel west- 
ward at the rate of sixty miles a 
day, you would have morning all 
the while. In twenty-four hours 
you would travel around the little 
world and reach the point from 
which 3^ou started. That place 
w^ould in the meantime have 
passed through a day and night, 
but you would have seen no 
night nor even noon. You would 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 37 

have been all the while inhaling 
morning airs and gazing on sun- 
rise glories. And this you might 
continue to do forever, provided 
you lived that long and changed 
your team occasionally. In like 
manner, by starting at the prop- 
er time, you might gaze forever 
upon the gorgeous hues of the 
sunset sky. Or, if you are par- 
ticularly fond of moonshine, you 
might dwell forever in the shades 
of night, never beholding the sun 
a single time in millions of years. 
And these little worlds surpass 
all the rest of the universe, so far 
as I know, in the quantity and 
quality of their moonshine. Al- 
though they are so small, they are 
so near together that each ap- 
pears to the others to be quite 



138 GOD IN NATURE. 

large, and each one serves the 
others as a moon. If you were 
to spend a night on one of these 
little planets, you would see more: 
than a hundred moons all at the 
same time — some of them vastly 
larger than our moon appears to 
us, some of them smaller — some 
new moons, some full moons, 
some half moons. They would 
be seen in all parts of the sky^ 
moving in various directions^ 
changing their phases rapidly, 
crossing each other's pathway, 
eclipsing each other, and various- 
ly moving about as if in the mazes 
of a weird, fantastic dance. Glo- 
rious scenery, isn't it? Indescri- 
bably glorious ! Yet, after all, a 
world whose chief recommenda- 
tion is the quantity or quality of 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 39 

its moonshine may not be a very 
desirable place of abode. It would 
doubtless suit some people. It 
would be a grand place for moon- 
struck poets, first-sight lovers^ 
novel-readers of a certain class^ 
and especially for those shallow- 
brained, spread-eagle declaimers 
of the Ingersoll type who prefer 
shadow to substance, and who 
revel perpetually in the subli- 
mated moonshine of agnosticism 
and materialism ; but for ordinary 
mortals this terrestrial globe is in- 
finitely preferable as a place of 
abode. If aponderousspecimenof 
the genus homo were transported 
to one of these little planets, he 
would be surprised to find that, in- 
stead of weighing two hundred 
pounds as he does here, he would 



140 GOD IN NATURE. 

weigh less than a pound. I am not 
joking nor romancing. Weight is 
the measure of the force of grav- 
itation. When we say that a body 
weighs a hundred pounds, we 
mean that the earth draws it 
downward with a force equal to 
one hundred pounds. And grav- 
ity is proportional to mass or 
quantity of matter — i, a large 
body exerts a greater force than 
a small one. Now, taking the 
earth's diameter (eight thousand 
miles) and the diameter of one 
of these little worlds (twenty 
miles), make a calculation, and 
you will see that I have under- 
stated rather than overstated the 
truth in regard to this matter. 
From what has been said it fol- 
lows that the same muscular ex- 



GOD IN NATURE. I4I 

ertion which is requisite to lift 
ten pounds here would there be 
sufficient to lift a ton. A school- 
boy who feels elated when he 
becomes strong enough to lift a 
sack of shot from the floor, if he 
were carried to one of these little 
worlds, could take up a loaded 
freight car on his back and walk 
off with it as easily as Samson 
walked off with the gates of Gaza. 
The boy would be no stronger 
than he is here, but the weight 
of the freight car would be many 
hundreds of times less. The 
same muscular exertion which 
here enables a man to jump a dis- 
tance of ten feet would there 
enable him to leap clear across 
the Mississippi River — i, e., if 
there were one — but of course 



142 GOD IN NATURE. 

such a world could hardly have a 
stream big enough to turn a flut- 
ter mill. Although these worlds 
are so small that they can never 
be seen by the naked eye, yet 
astronomers know them all by 
name, never mistaking one for 
another, know their distances 
from each other and from the 
sun, know the orbit in which 
each moves, and knovv in w^hat 
part of its orbit each one is at 
any particular time, even when it 
is beyond the range of the might- 
iest telescope. 

Next we come to the giant of 
the solar system — Jupiter. Ju- 
piter is about thirteen hundred 
times as large as the earth. A 
railroad train traveling continu- 
ously at the rate of five hundred 



GOD IN NATURE. I43 

miles a day could not go around 
in less than about a year and a 
half. It revolves upon its axis in 
about ten hours, so that its days 
and nights are only about five 
hours long. Its year is nearly 
equal to twelve of our years, so 
that its seasons are three years 
long; I mean, of course, three of 
our years. It has five moons, 
which vary greatly in size. 
These moons also differ in 
color, two of them being blue, 
one yellow, and one red. It has 
an atmosphere that rises to a 
great height. It is perpetually 
enveloped, from pole to pole, by 
clouds of great density. It is 
perhaps an instance of a world 
on fire. The latest researches 
of astronomers seem to indicate 



1^4 GOD IN NATURE. 

that the entire body of thi^ 
planet is in, an intensely heat- 
ed condition — melted, glowing, 
white-hot. 

The next planet is Saturn. It 
also is many hundreds of times 
larger than the earth. Its days 
and nights are about equal to 
those of Jupiter — five hours each. 
Its year is equal to twenty-nine 
of our years, making its seasons 
each a little more than seven 
years long. It has eight moons. 
It has also a very remarkable at- 
tendant in the shape of a lumi- 
nous ring extending entirely 
around it. To form an idea of 
this ring as seen from the sur- 
face of the planet, imagine the 
tail of the beautiful comet of 
1882 to be extended clear across. 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 45 

the sky and then around the 
earth to the comet's head. Then 
imagine this ring to be wide 
enough to cover at least one- 
fourth of the sky, and to be vis- 
ible day and night. In addition 
to this, think of eight moons 
careering across the sky, chan- 
ging rapidly — to crescent-shaped, 
gibbous, semicircular, full-orbed, 
all in a few hours. In physical 
constitution Saturn resembles Ju- 
piter — a globe of liquid fire, en- 
circled by a mantle of cloud. 

The next planet, Uranus, is 
also much larger than the earth. 
It has four moons. Its year is 
equal to eighty-four of our years. 

We now come to the outer- 
most planet of our system — Nep- 
tune. It is a body of immense 
10 



146 GOD IN NATURE. 

size, its circumference being 
more than a hundred thousand 
miles. It has only one moon. 
Its year is equal to one hundred 
and sixty-four of our years. 
Each of its seasons is therefore 
forty-one years long. If an in- 
habitant of Neptune were born 
on the first day of spring, he 
would have to live forty-one 
years — that is, forty-one of our 
years — before he would see the 
first day of summer, and then he 
would have to live forty-one 
years longer, which would make 
him eighty-two years old, before 
he would see the first frost. And 
when he was a hundred and six- 
ty-four years old by our method 
of reckoning time, he would be 
only a year-old baby according 



GOD IN NATURE. I47 

to Neptunian almanacs. If Me- 
thuselah had lived on Neptune 
instead of here, he would not 
have been old enough to start to 
school v^^hen he died; he would 
have been only a little over five 
years old. But if he were to 
live nine hundred and sixty-nine 
years measured by Neptunian 
almanacs, then by ours he would 
be 158,916 years old — a period 
more than twenty-five times as 
long as that which is supposed 
to have intervened since Adam 
was created. If Moses had 
been born in Neptune, and had 
lived on until now, he would 
now be only about twenty years 
old. 

The solar system also includes 
a vast number of those erratic 



148 GOD IN NATURE. 

bodies, the comets. Their num- 
ber is not definitely known, but 
it is estimated at several millions. 
They revolve in orbits that are 
hundreds of times longer in one 
direction than in the other. They 
are visible to us only w^hen in 
that part of their orbits which is 
nearest to the sun. Their times 
of revolution are exceedingly 
various. Some of them reap- 
pear at intervals of from three 
to seventy-five years. Others, 
after gleaming upon us for a 
short time, plunge far out into 
the dark profundities of space, to 
be seen no more by mundane 
eyes for thousands of years. 

Now, let your mind rapidly 
review the facts we have learned 
concerning the solar system. 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 49 

The number of planets known 
at present, including the aster- 
oids, is more than five hundred. 
They are of all sizes, from twenty 
miles to eighty-six thousand miles 
in diameter. They all whirl upon 
their axes, the time varying from 
ten to twenty-four hours, while 
at the same time they revolve 
around the sun, the time of rev- 
olution varying from eighty-sev- 
en days to one hundred and 
sixty-four years. Besides these, 
there are twenty satellites revolv- 
ing around the planets. Then, 
there are the comets, nobody 
knows how many thousands of 
them, circling in among the 
planets for a time, and then 
plunging out into those far-off 
depths of space which no eye 



150 GOD IN NATURE. 

can pierce. In addition to this, 
the whole solar system is in mo- 
tion. The sun, with all its bril- 
liant retinue of planets, satellites, 
and comets, is rushing on through 
space in an orbit of almost in- 
comprehensible dimensions at the 
rate of several thousand miles 
per hour. 

Let us next consider celestial 
distances. The mean distances 
of the planets, as given by New- 
comb, are as follows: Mercury, 
forty million miles; Venus, six- 
ty-six million; earth, ninety-two 
and a half million; Mars, one 
hundred and forty-one million; 
Jupiter, four hundred and eighty 
million; Saturn, eight hundred 
and eighty million; Uranus, one 
billion seven hundred and sev- 



GOD IN NATURE. I5I 

enty million; Neptune, two bil- 
lion seven hundred and seventy- 
five million. It is easy enough 
to pronounce these words, but to 
comprehend the idea they em- 
body is a very different matter. 
Let us try to enlarge our concep- 
tions by the aid of an illustration. 
Suppose a railroad could be 
built from the earth to the sun,' 
and suppose a train should run 
on it continuously at the rate of 
five hundred miles per day. How 
long would it take for that train 
to go from the earth to the sun? 
Make the calculation, and you 
will see that it would take more 
than five hundred years. If the 
train had started from the sun on 
the day that Columbus discovered 
America, and had traveled con- 



152 GOD IN NATURE. 

tinuously ever since, it would up 
to this time have come only about 
four-fifths of the distance. A 
hundred years more must pass 
away before it would reach the 
earth. It would take a man 
walking at the rate of twenty- 
five miles a day just twenty times 
as long — /. ten thousand years. 
If Cain had started on a journey 
to the sun on the morning after 
he slew Abel, and had traveled 
continuously since, he would up 
to this time have traveled only 
about three-fifths of the way. 
Four thousand years more must 
be spent in ceaseless tramping 
before the old vagabond would 
show the mark of a murderer to 
the inhabitants of the sun. 

The distance of Neptune from 



GOD IN NATURE. I53 

the sun is, in round numbers, 
thirty times as great as that of 
the earth. Hence, it would take 
thirty times five hundred years — 
/. fifteen thousand years — for 
our express train to travel from 
the sun to Neptune. It would 
take a pedestrian twenty times 
fifteen thousand years — i, e, , three 
hundred thousand years — to make 
the journey, a period fifty times 
as long as that which has passed 
since Adam took his first nap in 
Eden. 

We have hitherto kept within 
the limits of the solar system. 
Let us now venture into the re- 
gions beyond. Since all the 
stars appear to the eye to be 
equidistant from the earth, one 
unacquainted with astronomy 



154 NATURE. 

would naturally suppose that if 
he could transport himself to 
Neptune he would be in close 
proximity to most of the stars. 
This, however, is a most egre- 
gious error. If you could visit 
this outermost planet of our sys- 
tem, although you would have 
consumed fifteen thousand years 
in the journey, traveling with 
railroad speed, yet you would be 
apparently no nearer the fixed 
stars than you are now. Leav- 
ing out of the account a few of 
the planetary bodies belonging 
to our solar system, the star- 
spangled sky would present the 
same appearance that it does 
here. There would be scarcely 
a perceptible difference in the 
magnitude or brilliancy of a sin- 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 55 

gle one of the glittering gems 
that bedeck the brow of night. 
Do you wish to know how much 
farther you must go in order to 
reach the nearest fixed star? 
Well, listen, and I will tell you. 
Your astronomical yardstick — 
the distance from the earth to 
the sun — is ninety-two and a half 
million miles long, so long that 
it takes our railway train five 
hundred years to go from one 
end of it to the other. Now, 
you must lay down this yard- 
stick no less than two hundred 
and twenty-six thousand times. 
To traverse this distance, your 
train would require two hundred 
and twenty-six thousand times 
five hundred years — /. e,, one 
hundred and thirteen million 



156 GOD IN NATURE. 

years. If our train had started 
from the earth on the morning 
that Adam was created and had 
traveled continuously until now, 
it would have traversed only 
about a twenty-thousandth part 
of the distance. 

Perhaps it will give a still more 
impressive idea of these dis- 
tances if we consider the length 
of time that it takes for light to 
traverse them. The velocity of 
light, you know, is amazing. The 
distance from the sun to the 
earth, which our railroad train 
could not traverse in less than 
five hundred years, light trav- 
erses in less than eight minutes, 
so that its velocity is more than 
thirty million times as great as 
that of our railway train traveling 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 57 

five hundred miles a day. Now, 
the nearest fixed star is so far 
away that its light, traveling with 
this almost inconceivable veloci- 
ty, cannot reach the earth in less 
than three and a fourth years. 
Another star whose distance has 
been measured requires more 
than seven years for its light to 
reach us. The light of still an- 
other consumes forty-five years 
in its earthward journey. 

Hitherto we have been consid- 
ering the nearer stars — those that 
are plainly visible to the naked 
eye. These, however, are, com- 
paratively speaking, utterly in- 
significant in number. Bring the 
telescope to your aid, and you 
multiply the number of visi- 
ble stars almost immeasurably. 



158 GOD IN NATURE. 

Those who have never employed 
telescopic aid in contemplating 
the diamond-studded dome above 
can have no conception of the 
enrapturing splendors that burst 
upon the vision as the fire-clad 
hosts by millions go trooping 
across the sky. The number of 
these telescopic stars is so great 
that an exact enumeration of 
them is almost impossible. Noth- 
ing more than an approximation 
has ever been attempted. Now, 
the distances of these telescopic 
stars cannot be accurately de- 
termined, as can the distances of 
the nearer ones. The method 
of triangulation is no longer ap- 
plicable. There is another meth- 
od, however, called the method 
of telescopic amplification, by 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 59 

"which astronomers estimate the 
distances of even these far-off 
worlds. Applying this method, 
astronomers have reached the 
stupendous conclusion that some 
of these telescopic stars are so 
remote that their light can reach 
us only after a journey of thirty 
millions of years. ( This is the es- 
timate of the late Gen. Mitchell.) 

Now, imagine yourself taking 
a journey to the remotest star 
revealed by the most powerful 
earthly telescope, that star whose 
light can reach us only after a 
journey of thirty millions of 
years. In such a flight you 
w^ould very soon reach a point 
from which this earth, great as 
it appears to us, would be seen 
only as a very small star. Going 



l6o GOD IN NATURE. 



farther still, the earth would pass 
from sight. This would be the 
case even before w^e got beyond 
the limits of the solar system. 
From Neptune the earth could 
be seen only by the aid of a 
very powerful telescope. We 
know that this would be the case, 
because Neptune cannot be seen 
from the earth except with a 
good telescope, although Nep- 
tune is a great deal larger than 
the earth. Beyond the limits of 
the solar system there lies a vast 
tract of empty space, more than 
twenty trillions of miles in extent. 
I have already shown that, in or- 
der to cross this vast abyss and 
reach the nearest fixed star, a 
railroad train would require one 
hundred and thirteen millions of 



GOD IN NATURE. l6l 



years — a period twenty thousand 
times as long as that which has 
intervened since the creation. 
Into this dark gulf you plunge 
on your lightning wings, and on- 
ward wend your solitary way. 
No planet or satellite crosses 
your path. Now and then a 
lone comet goes blazing by; but 
even he, hermit though he is, 
soon grows tired of these dreary, 
lifeless solitudes, and rushes back 
with more than railroad speed to 
those regions where, he can hear 
the many-voiced hum of life and 
witness the multitudinous ac- 
tivities of Godlike mind. On- 
ward you go, and soon all the 
planets of the solar system are 
lost sight of. Even the colossal 
Jupiter fades from view. Wheu 
1 1 



l62 GOD IN NATURK. 

you have reached the nearest 
fixed star, even our great sun is 
seen as a very small star, a 
mere glittering point in the heav- 
ens. For our sun is a star, and 
many of the fixed stars are suns 
having a number of planets re- 
volving around them, these plan- 
ets being invisible to us on ac- 
count of their distance. Now, 
leaving the first fixed star, as we 
call it, with its brilliant retinue 
of planets, satellites, and comets, 
you go onward toward the next 
star. Before you reach it, 5^our 
first fixed star has dwindled to a 
point, and all its planetary at- 
tendants have been lost sight of. 
Approaching this second fixed 
star, you find it also sur- 
rounded by a gay company of 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 63 

planets, moons, and comets, di- 
verse in size and appearance, 
and circling around it in various 
periods of time. And thus, as 
you pass on, star after star re- 
solves itself into the center of a 
solar system and reveals its hid- 
den glories to your enraptured 
gaze. And thus you go on and 
on, passing one solar system aft- 
er another, until at last you reach 
your destination — that star whose 
light reaches us after a jour- 
ney of thirty millions of years. 
Just think of it! Thirty million 
years, traveling w^ith a velocity 
thirty million times as great as 
that of the railway train. The 
light that left one of those stars 
on the morning that Adam sat 
down to make his first fig leaf 



164 GOD IN NATURE. 

robe — say six thousand years 
ago — has up to this time traveled 
only a five-thousandth part of the 
distance to the earth. More 
than twenty-nine million years 
must pass before those golden 
beams wdll reach our terrestrial 
dwelling place. If multitudes of 
these remote telescopic stars had 
been blotted out of existence 
twenty-five millions of years ago, 
we would not yet have found it 
out; and if they should be an- 
nihilated to-day, thirty million 
years would pass before any 
earthly astronomer would miss 
them from the sky. It is pos- 
sible that myriads of bright 
worlds may have been created 
in those far-off realms long be- 
fore the first flower bloomed in 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 65 

Eden, and yet no earthly eye 
has yet seen them, or shall see 
them for millions of years to 
come. What an idea does this 
give us of the extent of space 
and of the overwhelming gran- 
deur of the material universe ! 

But we have not yet reached 
a stopping place. The first tel- 
escopes that were constructed 
were of small magnifying power, 
and hence brought to light only 
a few new worlds. Soon after- 
wards instruments of greater 
power were constructed, and 
these vastly increased the num- 
ber of visible worlds. Since then 
improvement after improvement 
has been made in the telescope, 
and every successive augmenta- 
tion of optical power has evoked 



1 66 GOD IN NATURE. 



from the viewless depths of space 
countless myriads of flaming 
worlds unseen before. This be- 
ing the case, astronomers believe 
that if it were possible to con- 
struct a telescope having a mag- 
nifying power ten thousand times 
greater than that of an}' now in 
existence the number of visible 
worlds would be proportionately 
increased. What is a drop of 
water in comparison with the 
ocean, or a grain of sand in 
comparison with the earth? Yet 
ten thousand times smaller, per- 
haps, is that part of the universe 
which lies within the range of 
telescopic vision when compared 
with that part which lies in those 
measureless abysses which no 
telescope has ever penetrated. 



GOD IN NATURE. I 67 

Imagine yourself instantaneously 
transported by some mysterious 
power to a point far beyond the 
remotest star revealed by the 
most powerful telescope. Pause 
and ask yourself, ''What lies be- 
fore me?" The answer is, 
Space." Rise upon the pin- 
ions of an angel and travel with 
the velocity of the lightning's 
flash, and continue your flight 
for more millions of ages than 
there are drops of water in the 
ocean, what lies before you? 
Space. Increase your speed a 
thousandfold, and go on and on 
and on for more millions of ages 
than there are atoms of matter in 
the whole visible universe. Have 
you yet reached the boundaries 
of space? Why, you are no' 



1 68 GOD IN NATURE. 



nearer than when you began 
your flight. Space is infinite. 
It is " a circle whose center is 
everywhere and whose circum- 
ference is nowhere." So, then, 
there is room in space for more 
minions of worlds than our arith- 
metic can compute or our finite 
imagination can conceive of. 
And since every successive in- 
crease of telescopic power has 
revealed worlds unseen before, 
it is only reasonable to suppose 
that still greater telescopic power 
would bring into view multiplied 
millions more. Increase your 
speed ten thousand fold (remem- 
ber that you are already travel- 
ing with a velocity a thousand 
times greater than that of the 
lightning's flash), and go on and 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 69 

on and on for more millions of 
ages than there are atoms of mat- 
ter in the whole telescopic uni- 
verse. Would you be — I will not 
say beyond the boundaries of 
space, for of course you would 
not — but would you be beyond 
the boundaries of the materialuni- 
verse ? Who will venture the rash 
assertion ? Doubtless you would 
still find yourself surrounded by 
countless millions of flaming 
worlds, stretching away in every 
direction beyond the reach of 
telescopic vision. 

Let us next inquire concerning 
the origin of the material uni- 
verse. At the very outset of this 
investigation we are sometimes 
confronted with a deal of gran- 
diloquent dogmatism about " the 



170 GOD IN NATURE. 

eternity of matter; and those^ 
who thus talk seem to imagine 
that they are really solving the 
problem before us. A very little 
reflection, however, will sufRce 
to show that such an answer is 
entirely irrelevant. If we admit 
that matter is eternal, it is never- 
theless certain that the universe 
in its present form is not eternal. 
Science knows, if it knows any- 
thing at all, that the material uni-^ 
verse has passed through a mul- 
titude of changes. An extensive 
flight backward along the track 
of geological history brings be- 
fore us a very different world 
from that in which we dwell. 
And other worlds have expe- 
rienced similar changes. So, 
then, what we have to account 



GOD IN NATURE. I7I 

for is not simply matter, but mat- 
ter organized. Not an ideal 
universe in which matter exists 
in a chaotic state, but the uni- 
verse as it is, a universe in which 
law, order, harmony, adaptation 
are everywhere apparent — that is 
the phenomenon to be accounted 
for. 

Does some one suggest the 
evolution theory as a solution of 
the problem ? Wherein does that 
aid us? Evolution is not a thing, 
a power, a cause; it is only a 
process. Evolution is simply a 
term used to describe the method 
by which some power works. 
The question ''What is that 
power?" it does not touch and 
cannot touch. The man who 
speaks of evolution as an origi- 



172 GOD IN NATURE. 

nating cause stultifies himself. 
Suppose we admit that the sun, 
the moon, the earth, and all 
those bodies that make up the 
solar system, and all the worlds 
in the universe, were slowly — no 
matter how slowly — evolved from 
matter in a gaseous form — the 
evolutionist's fire mist. What we 
then have to account for is not 
simply fire mist, but fire mist plus 
the order and harmony of the 
universe — fire mist that shall in- 
evitably develop worlds and sys- 
tems of worlds with all their par- 
aphernalia. Now, what is the 
evolving power? What is the 
nature of the cause that has pro- 
duced the universe in its present 
shape? Is it an intelligent or an 
unintelligent cause? That is the 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 73 

question at issue? How shall it 
be answered? 

Let us in the first place make 
inquiry concerning the origin of 
motion — particularly the motions 
of the heavenly bodies. Let it 
be noted that motion is a univer- 
sal characteristic of the heavenly 
bodies. Every planet, as we 
have seen, has a double motion, 
a motion on its axis and a mo- 
tion in its orbit. And the whole 
solar system is in motion. Now, 
what is true of the earth and our 
solar system is true of all worlds 
and all systems. Every world 
and system in the universe is in 
motion. 

Now, how did these motions 
originate? Inertia is one of the 
primary and essential properties 



174 ™ NATURE. 

of matter. Place a stone in the 
street, and, if it could be pre- 
served from decay, it would lie 
there forever, unless acted upon 
by some extraneous force. It 
has no power to put itself in mo- 
tion. And as with the stone so 
with every atom of matter in the 
universe. No world, no atom, no 
possible combination of atoms 
can put itself in motion. This is 
an ultimate principle in science. 
"But," says the materialist, 
may it not be that these mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies had 
their origin in heat, electricity, 
gravitation, or some other one 
of the great correlated forces of 
nature?" It is freely admitted 
that at the present day many of 
the motions of nature are pro- 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 75 

duced in this way. For instance, 
many of the motions of the at- 
mosphere have their origin in 
heat — that is, different parts 
of the atmosphere become un- 
equally heated, and thus an 
aerial current is created to re- 
store the thermal equilibrium. 
Water also is put in motion by 
heat in the process of evapora- 
tion. Many other instances 
might be given. Now, says the 
materialist, just as these motions 
are produced, just so all the mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies were 
produced. The natural forces 
are a sufficient explanation of 
them all. 

This theory, though plausible, 
is inadequate, for the conditions 
under which these forces now 



176 GOD IN NATURE. 

act are altogether different from 
the conditions under which they 
acted in the beginning. The 
primordial state of matter ac- 
cording to all the evolution the- 
ories is that of a gas uniformly 
diffused. Let us form a picture 
of that primeval universe. Let 
us imagine all space, or at least 
all that v^^e know anything about^ 
filled with matter in a gaseous 
form, and let us conceive of it 
as perfectly motionless, and then 
attempt to devise a plan by which 
motion shall originate. Heat can- 
not originate it, because heat 
creates motion only where there 
is a thermal inequality, and in 
this case all the particles of mat- 
ter in the universe are, according 
to the hypothesis, in the same 



GOD IN NATURE. I77 

thermal condition. And so elec- 
tricity originates motion only 
where there is a want of elec- 
trical equilibrium. But in the 
case before us there is no such 
want of equilibrium, all matter 
being in the same electrical con- 
dition. Hence it is apparent 
that electricity could not have 
originated the motions of the 
heavenly bodies. And the same 
is true of gravitation. Gravita- 
tion can create motion only where 
there is a difference of magnitude 
or density between two bodies; 
and according to the theory there 
was in this case no such differ- 
ence, matter being everywhere 
of the same density. Moreover, 
gravitation is merely the centripe- 
tal force that exactly counterbal- 

13 



178 GOD IN NATURE. 

ances the centrifugal force, and 
thus prevents the planets from 
flying off at a tangent. Grav- 
itation alone, unmodified by any 
other force, would cause every 
planet to plunge at once headlong 
into the sun, and would cause 
all the solar systems in the uni- 
verse to rush together into one 
colossal mass of chaotic matter 
— the most appalling catastrophe 
that even Deity's imagination can 
conceive of. Hence it is impos- 
sible that gravitation can be the 
originating cause of motion. 
Thus we see that the great nat- 
ural forces — heat, light, electric- 
ity, gravitation, etc. — can create 
motion only when the equilibrium 
of the gaseous universe has been 
disturbed so as to bring about a 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 79 

difference of density, or of elec- 
trical or thermal conditions. In 
other words, the natural forces 
can produce motion only after 
motion has already been pro- 
duced. The primal motions of 
the universe could not possibly 
have had their origin in the nat- 
ural forces. Given a universe 
of gaseous matter uniformly dif- 
fused and perfectly motionless, 
every particle of it will re- 
main motionless throughout eter- 
nity unless motion be communi- 
cated to it from some extraneous 
source. Is there such an ex- 
traneous source? Can we find 
motion that has its source out- 
side the realm of matter? Let 
us see. I lift my arm. Here is 
motion. Where did this motion 



l8o GOD IN NATURE. 

originate? Did it originate in 
the matter that composes my 
arm or my brain? The matter 
in my body is iron, lime, sulphur, 
carbon, hydrogen, phosphorus, 
etc., the same materials that are 
found in the soil. The iron in 
my body has no more power to 
put itself in motion than has the 
iron in a crowbar. And so of all 
the other elements that compose 
my body. The motion of my 
arm, then, cannot have orig- 
inated in the matter that com- 
poses my arm or my brain or 
any other part of my body. 
Where, then, did it originate? 
Reason has an answer : ' ' Not in 
the iron, carbon, or phosphorus 
in my arm or brain, but in that 
invisible, intangible, immaterial 



GOD IN NATURE. l8l 

something within that thinks and 
feels and wills — that something 
which we call the soul." Here, 
then, we have two fundamental 
principles, (i) Matter cannot 
originate motion. (2) Mind can 
originate motion. Motion, then, 
had its origin in mind. Just 
as the motions of my body have 
their origin in my mind, just so 
the motions of the heavenly 
bodies had their origin in the 
infinite mind of the Deity. If 
this is not a philosophical ex- 
planation- of the origin of mo- 
tion, then none has ever been 
given. 

Thus we see that the motions 
of the heavenly bodies, consid- 
ered in themselves, proclaim the 
existence of a God. If this is 



l82 GOD IN NATURE. 

true of these motions, considered 
in themselves, how vastly is the 
force of the argument increased 
when we consider the character 
of these motions ! 

Let us contemplate the power 
displayed in these celestial mo- 
tions. Power is expressed in 
motion, and is measured by the 
mass and velocity of the moving 
body. A mortar gun hurling its 
deadly missiles of three hundred 
pounds' weight miles into the air 
is usually regarded as a tre- 
mendous exhibition of power. 
An Indian, reared in one of the 
territories of the far West, once 
took a journey far from his 
home, came within the confines 
of civilization, and stood for the 
first time by the side of a rail- 



GOD IN NATURE. 183 

road. Presently a lightning ex- 
press train came rattling and 
crashing and thundering along 
with the speed of an eagle in 
pursuit of his prey. The In- 
dian's eye dilated, his breast 
heaved with emotion, and he 
stood motionless as a statue, 
watching the receding train un- 
til it passed out of sight. Then, 
lifting hands and eyes to heav- 
en, he exclaimed: " Take care, 
Great Spirit; the white man will 
beat you." To the untutored 
mind of the Indian the rapidly 
moving railway train is a most 
tremendous exhibition of power. 
But both mortar gun and railway 
train are utterly insignificant as 
exhibitions of power when com- 
pared with the motions of the 



184 GOD IN NATURE. 

heavenly bodies. We must bring 
imagination to our aid and con- 
struct our own symbols of power. 
Imagine Mount Chimborazo up- 
heaved from its base, lifted high 
into the air and hurled with the 
velocity of a cannon ball clear 
across the Pacific Ocean into 
the heart of Asia ! Imagine the 
whole continent of America, from 
the ice-bound fastnesses of the 
arctic zone to the storm-swept 
coast of Southern Patagonia, 
hurled aloft with a force so 
great that it would never return, 
but go circling on around the 
sun like a new asteroid forever. 
What stupendous exhibitions of 
power these would be ! Yet 
what would be even this force 
in comparison with that which is 



GOD IN NATURE. 185 

■displayed in the perpetual mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies? 
Think of this great earth, with 
all its paraphernalia, whirling 
upon its axis at the rate of a 
thousand miles per hour, while 
at the same time it courses along 
its annual track at the rate of 
sixty-eight thousand miles per 
hour. Sixty-eight thousand miles 
per hour ! That means more 
than eleven hundred miles per 
minute. Your fastest railroad 
train runs only about one mile 
per minute. Just think of this 
great earth moving eleven hun- 
dred miles while your lightning 
express train goes one mile. 
And yet this great terrestrial car 
moves along its ethereal track so 
smoothly that ''it does not dis- 



1 86 GOD IN NATURE. 



turb the slumbers of the babe in 
its cradle, or shake the young 
birdling from its nest in the tree 
top." And this is one of the mi-^ 
nor motions of nature. Jupiter 
whirls upon its axis at the rate 
of twenty-five thousand miles per 
hour, while Mercury courses 
along its annual track at the rate 
of eighteen hundred miles per 
minute. Just think of a great 
world moving eighteen hundred 
miles while your lightning ex- 
press train goes one mile. And 
it is estimated that many of the 
fixed stars have a motion far 
more rapid than this. It is es- 
timated that one of them has a 
velocity of twelve thousand miles 
per minute. Endeavor to esti- 
mate the power requisite to pro- 



GOD IN NATURE. l8/ 

duce and sustain these motions. 
Here is the sun, a great burning 
world, more than a million times 
larger than the earth, hanging 
unsupported in the heavens. 
Then there are more than five 
hundred planets and satellites of 
various sizes revolving around 
it w^ith the amazing velocities of 
which I have spoken. Then, the 
whole of this magnificent system 
— sun, planets, satellites, and 
comets- — is rushing on through 
space in some unknown orbit at 
the rate of thousands of miles per 
hour. Besides all this, remember 
that nearly every star that gleams 
upon us from the nocturnal sky 
or crosses the field of the most 
far-reaching telescope is a sun, 
the center of a system of worlds 



l88 GOD IN NATURE. 



equally magnificent with ours, 
and that all these solar systems 
are in motion, some of them 
moving at the rate of twelve 
thousand miles per minute. I 
say, contemplate all this, and 
then tell me what is your estimate 
of the power requisite to produce 
these motions and to maintain 
them through countless millions 
of ages. Can it be less than in- 
finite power? 

Let us next consider the mar- 
velous precision of these motions. 
It is a triumph of modern en- 
gineering skill that our railroad 
trains are so frequently on time. 
Yet they are not always on time. 
Moreover, when we say that a 
train is on time the language is 
not to be construed too literally. 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 89 

By such an expression we simply 
mean that it is within about a 
minute of the schedule time» 
Seconds are hardly taken into 
the account at all. But when we 
contemplate the heavenly bodies, 
we behold motions whose pre- 
cision is absolutely marvelous. 
Each revolving orb completes a 
revolution on its axis within a 
definite period, never varying the 
ten-thousandth part of a second. 
And not only the axial, but also 
the orbital motions are charac- 
terized by this marvelous exact- 
ness. Select a given point in the 
orbit of the earth or any other 
planetary body, and the astron- 
omer can tell you when it will 
reach that point, not only to a 
minute, but to a fraction of a 



190 GOD IN NATURE. 

second. We witness proofs of 
this every day. The family al- 
manac that hangs by the fireside 
contains predictions concerning 
eclipses, transits, conjunctions, 
occultations, etc. And these pre- 
dictions are fulfilled with marvel- 
ous minuteness. Precisely at the 
appointed time the predicted 
events take place. If there is 
the slightest variation, the astron- 
omer is absolutely sure that the 
fault is with himself and not with 
the revolving orb. He may make 
a slight error in his observations 
or calculations, but the planetary 
body does not vary one iota from 
its predetermined rate of motion. 

Now, then, let your mind run 
over all these facts ; think of the 
vast number of worlds, their 



GOD IN NATURE. I9I 

•size, the velocity with which 
they move, and the amazing 
precision of their motions. In 
addition to this, remember that 
all these countless millions of 
stupendous world systems have 
been in existence and have kept 
up their ceaseless and compli- 
cated motions not for six thou- 
sand years alone, as men once 
supposed, but for multiplied mil- 
lions of ages. I say, think of 
all this, and then tell me: What 
is the power that preserves the 
stability and harmony of the 
universe? What prescribes to 
each world and system one lone 
pathway from which it dare not 
deviate? What prevents world 
from colliding with world and 
system with system until the 



192 GOD IN NATURE. 

whole universe becomes one vast 
scene of w^reck and ruin par- 
alleled only by the primeval 
chaos from which all things 
sprang? What is the force that 
perpetuates the universe with its 
complexities and harmonies, its 
beauties and utilities? We have 
already seen that all motion has 
its origin in mind. The question 
which now confronts us is: 
What sort of mind is competent 
to the task of producing and per- 
petuating the marvelous phenom- 
ena w^e have been contemplating. 
Can it be less than an infinite 
mind? Imagine an unomniscient 
being endowed with unlimited 
power. Command him to create 
a solar system. Let him have 
all the wisdom imaginable less. 



GOD IN NATURE. I93 

than infinite wisdom. Give him 
inteUigence far surpassing that 
of the loftiest archangel. Let 
him have matter to begin with. 
Suppose all the space now oc- 
cupied by the solar system to be 
filled with matter in a gaseous 
form. Command him to con- 
dense all this vast mass of glow- 
ing, incandescent gas into the 
more solid forms of matter, to 
fashion it into worlds of various 
dimensions, and of these worlds 
to construct a solar system. No- 
tice the conditions of the prob- 
lem. He must know precisely 
how much matter to put into the 
great central luminary and into 
each revolving orb. No mistake 
here, not even the slightest, can 
be allowed. Too much matter, 
13 



194 NATURE. 

or too little, anywhere would cer- 
tainly destroy the equipoise of the 
entire system, and involve it in 
utter ruin. He must also place 
each planet at a proper distance 
from the central luminary, the 
magnitude of each being taken 
into the account. A mistake 
here would also be fatal. He 
must also give to each revolving 
orb its proper rate of motion. 
Too great velocity would break 
gravitation's cord, and send the 
planets out into the dark, unfath- 
omable abysses of space, never 
to return but to wander on and 
on forever. Too little velocity 
would so augment the centripetal 
force that each planet would 
continually draw nearer and 
nearer to the great central orb, 



GOD IN NATURE. I95 

until at last it would plunge 
headlong into that great globe of 
fire. Now, under these condi- 
tions, command your mighty 
spirit to create a solar system. 
He has the power, for we have 
given him omnipotence. But 
what is his reply? Ah! I see 
him now, his cheek blanched 
with terror, his knees smiting to- 
gether, as with tremulous voice 
he cries: ''You must also give 
me omniscience, or else release 
me from the impossible task. If 
one single mistake is to involve 
this whole system in everlasting 
ruin, what avails all my power 
unless I also have wisdom com- 
mensurate therewith ? No ! If 
you wish me to undertake this 
task, you must give me not only 



196 GOD IN NATURE. 

omnipotence, but also omnis- 
cience; for without it I know I 
should make not only one but 
ten thousand mistakes." Well, 
if infinite wisdom as well as pow- 
er divine is required to produce 
one solar system, how much 
more to create ten thousand 
times ten thousand solar systems 
and preserve them through mil- 
lions of ages wdth all their com- 
plex motions and all their multi- 
tudinous and incomprehensible 
actions and reactions upon each 
other? 

But if this is true of these mo- 
tions in themselves without any 
reference to their designs, how 
vastly is the force of the argu- 
ment increased when we con- 
sider them in their teleological 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 97 

aspects ! Let us specialize a 
little. Let us contemplate briefly 
a few of the multitudinous cor- 
relations and adaptations man- 
ifest in the material universe. 
Of course exhaustive treatment 
is impossible within the brief 
limits which the proprieties of 
the occasion allow. 

Let us consider the earth's 
motions.- If the earth were per- 
fectly stationary, one-half of its 
surface would be enshrouded in 
the perpetual gloom of midnight. 
This darkened hemisphere, shut 
out from the sun's heat as well 
as its light, would be a vast arc- 
tic zone, a region colder far 
than that in which Franklin and 
his heroic band fell victims to 
the fury of the Frost King's le- 



198 GOD IN NATURE. 

gions. In all this broad domain 
no living thing could stand 
before the blasts of winter's 
nostrils. Neither animal nor veg- 
etable life could exist. It would 
be a land of desolation, a hemi- 
sphere of ice and snow. 

The other half of the earth's 
surface would equally suffer from 
a superabundance of heat. Ex- 
posed to the perpetual glow of a 
summer's sun, vegetation would 
wither and die, and all the land 
become a parched, desert region, 
uninhabited and uninhabitable. 
So, then, the earth's motions are 
the very sine qua non of its habi- 
tability. Arrest these motions, 
and you depopulate the earth; 
you transform it into a capacious 
grave, and make its very name 



GOD IN NATURE. 1 99 

the synonym of all that is dreary 
and desolate. Now here is a 
wonderful correlation between 
the earth's motions and man's 
physical organism. There is a 
nice adaptation of the one to 
the other. Is this an undesigned 
correlation, a mere haphazard 
coincident? Who can believe it? 

Let us next consider earth's 
machinery for irrigating its soil. 
The animal kingdom is depend- 
ent upon the vegetable kingdom. 
Neither man nor any other an- 
imal could long exist were earth 
entirely denuded of vegetation. 
In order that vegetation may ex- 
ist, it is necessary that the soil 
shall be irrigated — abundantly 
watered. The water which is to 
irrigate the soil is locked up in 



200 GOD IN NATURE. 



nature's great storehouse, the 
ocean. How are the two to be 
brought together? Look upon 
the scene. Here are broad con- 
tinents,^ arid, burning, thirsty, 
crying, ''Water, water, water." 
There are old ocean's chambers 
filled wdth the liquid treasure. 
But Neptune claims every drop 
as his own possession; and, lest 
some one should steal it away, 
he has bound every drop hard 
and fast with an adamantine 
chain called the attraction of 
gravitation. Now who shall cut 
these chains asunder, and gather 
up the coveted treasures, and 
scatter them broadcast over the 
land? Is it not a hopeless task? 
What mortal feels himself com- 
petent to devise the machinery 



GOD IN NATURE. 20I 



that shall irrigate a continent? 
For once, Eads and DeLesseps 
confess their want of skill, and 
cry, Impossible ! " But, hist! 
Here comes rushing down from 
the sky a bright spirit that can 
perform the mighty task. His- 
name is Sunbeam. As noise- 
lessly as the snowflake falls, and 
yet as rapidly as the lightning 
leaps from the tornado's breast, 
he comes from his home in yon 
distant luminary, cuts gravita- 
tion's cord asunder, and lifts the 
pearly drop into the air. Quick 
as thought a gentle zephyr, un- 
seen by mortal eye, takes the 
liberated captive upon his wings, 
and bears it away, away into the 
heart of the continent, and pre- 
cipitates it, in sparkling dew- 



202 GOD IN NATURE. 

drop or pattering raindrop, upoir 
the thirsty soil. This is the his- 
tory of every raindrop that ever 
flowed through earth's rivers or 
fertilized earth's soil. Thus for 
unnumbered ages sunlight and 
air have worked together as true 
yokefellows in gathering up old 
ocean's treasures and scattering 
them over the land, in order that 
it may ''bring forth and bud, that 
it may give seed to the sower, and 
bread to the eater." Now, is all 
this machinery an accident? Is it 
by accident that the sunbeam 
possesses the power to cut grav- 
itation's cord in twain and lift 
the pearly drop into the air? Is 
it by accident that each zephyr 
carries upon his back a saddle 
in which the vaporous, ocean- 



GOD IN NATURE. 2O3 

born drop may ride? Is it by 
accident that all the myriads of 
raindrop-ridden zephyrs move 
as gently as well-trained war 
steeds until they hear the cry of 
a thirsty soil beneath them, and 
then, like so many wicked mules, 
toss their riders in a twinkling? 
Is there no contrivance, no de- 
sign, in all this? If not, where 
will you find design? Did any 
machine of man's devising ever 
work so perfectly? If the steam 
engine had a builder — an intelli- 
gent mind back of it to contrive 
its various parts and correlate 
them into one harmonious and 
wonder-working whole — so did 
earth's machinery for irrigating 
its soil. 

We might consider hundreds — 



204 GOD IN NATURE. 

yea, thousands — of other corre- 
lations which, equally with those 
already considered, furnish in- 
controvertible evidences of de- 
sign; but these must suffice. 
What, then, is the conclusion 
that reason forces upon us in re- 
gard to the origin of the cosmos? 
An infidel once said to an Arab: 
''How do you know that there 
is a God? You never saw him." 
The Arab replied: ''How do I 
know that a camel passed by 
my tent door last night? I did 
not see him pass. Nevertheless 
I know that he did pass, because 
when I went to my tent door this 
morning and looked out I saw 
his footprints in the sand. In 
like manner, when I contemplate 
all the beauties and utilities of 



GOD IN NATURE. 20$ 

nature, these are to me the foot- 
prints of a power that is super- 
human, a power that is divine." 
The Arab was right. 

If so simple a structure as a 
house, a watch, or a steam en- 
gine demands an intelligent 
mind as its builder, how much 
more the material universe ! Con- 
template the magnificent spec- 
tacle — ten thousand times ten 
million worlds whirling upon 
their axes and wheeling along 
their orbits with lightninglike 
velocity, and continuing their 
flight from age to age, I might 
almost say from eternity to eter- 
nity, no one ever deviating the 
ten-thousandth part of an inch 
from its appointed pathway; 
think of all the myriads of 



2o6 GOD IN NATURE. 



forms of life that inhabit each 
world, and of all the multifarious 
adaptations of each form of life 
to its environments; I say, think 
of all this, and then tell me: 
What is the origin of the cos- 
mos? Is all this stupendous 
mechanism the work of chance, 
or the product of mere material 
forces, blind and unintelligent? 
Did all this order and beauty 
and harmony, all these countless 
myriads of adjustments, correla- 
tions, and adaptations, come into 
being without an intelligent mind 
back of them to plan, to contrive, 
and to bring to pass? Perish 
the thought. Reason must have 
a God. Philosophy, no less than 
revelation, postulates a Great 
First Cause, the author of all 



GOD IN NATURE. 20^ 

we see. To deny it is to aban- 
don all logic, to fly in the face 
of reason and common sense. 
Of all the pestilential isms that 
ever disgraced the annals of hu- 
man thought, there is not one 
that is more worthy of universal, 
absolute, unmitigated scorn and 
contempt than atheistic mate- 
rialism. I know it may be said 
that there are intelligent men 
who are atheists, but what of 
that? There are men, otherwise 
sound in body, who are blind; 
do we lose faith in our own eye- 
sight because these poor unfor- 
tunate individuals cannot see? 
In like manner, if there are men, 
otherwise intelligent, who are by 
nature utterly incapacitated to 
reason correctly concerning cer- 



2o8 GOD IN NATURE. 

tain subjects, or who are destitute 
of those intuitive powers and 
those moral sensibilities that be- 
long to the rest of our race, must 
we therefore cease to exercise 
our reason or lose faith in our 
intuitions ? Follow the ignis 
fatuus of materialism, and she 
r^will land you, not on the sunlit, 
flower-crowned peaks of ever- 
lasting truth, but amid the dis- 
mal fogs and perilous quagmires 
of universal skepticism. The 
ceaseless ongoing of nature's 
machinery through all the count- 
less cycles of bygone time can 
be accounted for at reason's bar 
only by the ubiquitous presence 
of a living personality that is ab- 
solutely unlimited in all his at- 
tributes. The man w^ho prefers 



GOD IN NATURE. 209 

to attribute the mechanism of the 
universe to a blind, insensate 
force rather than to a hving, per- 
sonal God, is a ht companion 
only for those stolid Hebrews 
who bowed the knee to the dead 
image of an ugly calf at the very 
moment when Sinai's quaking, 
cloud-cappedform and awful, un- 
earthly thunders were proclaim- 
ing the immediate presence of 
the great majesty of heaven and 
earth. O, infidel! infidel! spend 
thy life, if thou wilt, in gathering 
together the cast-off ornaments 
of pagan philosophy, mold them 
into the shape of an ugly calf, 
dignify that calf with the high- 
sovmding title " Natural Forces," 
write its past history, and proph- 
esy its future in the most gorgeous 
^4 



2IO GOD IN NATURE. 



rhetoric that twentieth century 
civihzation can furnish ; worship 
this calf of thy own making to 
thy heart's content; make of 
thyself, if thou wilt, a missionary 
to propagate this calf worship — 
but thinkest thou, O prince of 
simpletons, that the world will 
heed thee? No; ten thousand 
times no ! The intellect of this 
heaven-favored age will bow the 
knee only at the shrine of a 
living, personal God; for nature 
brings us face to face with a 
being whose presence is com- 
mensurate with space and whose 
existence is coeval with eternit}^; 
a being whose capacious mind 
had planned the universe in all 
its multitudinous parts and re- 
lations countless millions of ages 



GOD IN NATURE. 211 

before the first atom of chaotic 
matter came forth from the 
womb of primeval nothingness. 
Every sun and star and galaxy 
proclaims its origin in a mind 
that is infinite in all its attributes. 

What though no real voice, nor sound, 
Amid the radiant orbs be found? 
In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice. 
Forever singing as they shine: 
The hand that made us is divine.' " 



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SEP 29 190S 



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